The Buckeyes were the NCAA Tournament's best team by a mile and also had the tournament's best player by a mile.
Ohio State's Nicolas Szerszen was named the NCAA Tournament's Most Outstanding Player following the Buckeyes' 2017 national championship win, coming as no surprise after his performances against Hawai'i and BYU in the tournament semifinals and finals.
Szerszen led the team in kills, service aces and digs throughout the tournament and led all players with 16 kills and eight digs during Ohio State's national title match win over BYU. Whenever the Buckeyes needed a big play or a spark throughout the tournament, Szerszen seemed to deliver.
During the second set of Thursday night's semifinal match against No. 4 seed Hawai'i, the All-American exploded for five-straight kills including four service aces to give the Buckeyes a decisive lead in the set.
Saturday, Szerszen's power serve once again helped lift the Buckeyes, this time past No. 3 seed BYU in the NCAA title match when he served for five-straight Ohio State points midway through the first set.
When he's at his best, Szerszen's serve is virtually untouchable. He doesn't do anything fancy or target anybody in particular, he just hits it hard and deep — just like Ohio State coach Pete Hanson wants it.
“It makes it pretty easy for me because there were a few balls that he had no business killing."– Christy Blough
"We talk to (Nick) Szerszen about hitting it 100 miles per hour and at somebody and trying to knock them over," Hanson joked after the team's win over Hawai'i. "It doesn't matter what number the guy's wearing or what position he plays."
His serve is lethal, but Szerszen is more than just a power server. In fact, he played his best set of the tournament when his serve wasn't at all effective.
In the third and final set of Saturday's national championship match, Szerszen couldn't get his serve going. He had two services errors in the set and the one he put in play resulted in a BYU point. Still, Szerszen was lethal offensively. The All-American closed out the match with nine third-set kills and had a hitting percentage of nearly .600.
“It makes it pretty easy for me because there were a few balls that he had no business killing," said Ohio State senior Christy Blough, one of the nation's top setters. "He’s a special player so he kills those balls and it makes me look a lot better.”
After the match, Szerszen said his third-set performance was fueled by the team's two regular-season losses and a desire to close out the match.
“All throughout the season we had two games that we lost, and those were due to a lack of focus or relaxing," Szerszen said. "I think that the last game was the one that we had to push, because we had to finish it because that could happen any time."
Thanks to Szerszen — nearly single handedly — Ohio State did finish it in that third set, and the Buckeyes were crowned the 2017 NCAA Champions after sweeping both matches.
While the Buckeyes lose six seniors to graduation — four of which earned 2017 All-American honors — and have to rebuild mightily in 2018, they will do so around a pretty firm cornerstone in Szserszen as he returns for his senior season before almost-certainly beginning a professional career.
When his Ohio State career wraps up, Buckeye fans will likely get watch Szerszen in the 2020 Olympics where he'll compete for his native country of France, making life difficult for team USA and head coach John Speraw.
Hanson concedes that he's not sure how Speraw is going to stop the Buckeye in the Tokyo games, and he's sure glad that's Speraw's problem and not his.
“You might just wanna dial up coach Speraw and ask him that question personally," Hanson said with a laugh. "Yeah, that’s gotta be a frightening thought for anybody to try to figure out how to get out of that situation, and I’m glad I don’t have to figure it out.”
