It's not where you start, but where you finish.
With a preseason loss at home followed by a 1-2 start to the 2016 campaign, the Ohio State men's volleyball team's season did not have a textbook beginning.
Since the rocky start, however, the team has righted the ship, and then some. The Buckeyes went on to win 23 of their next 24 matches, including nine against top-15 opponents.
Saturday, No. 2 Ohio State extended its win streak to 16 straight matches with a sweep of Lindenwood and earned its conference-best 25th regular season Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA) championship. The title is the team's first MIVA championship since 2012 and its first outright tile since 2011.
The conference title is something to celebrate, but these streaking Buckeyes want more. The team has climbed to No. 2 in the national polls and all signs point to a national title run for the Scarlet and Gray, which would be its first since winning its only national title in 2011.
Nicolas Szerszen leads the Buckeye offense (photo via OSU Athletics).
Ohio State's success is due in large part to its high-powered offense led by outside hitter Nicolas Szerszen. The Buckeye sophomore has raked in six of the season's 13 MIVA Offensive Player of the Week awards and looks to be a runaway favorite for a national award at season's end. Szerszen leads the team in nearly every offensive statistic and has aided OSU towards having one of the most efficient teams in the country.
Though the conference title has been clinched, one regular season match still remains on the docket as the Buckeyes will host Quincy, Sunday at 5 p.m. on senior night. A week later, the Buckeyes will host No. 8 seed IPFW in the MIVA Tournament, Sunday at 7 p.m.
With a MIVA Tournament title, the Buckeyes would earn an automatic bid to the six-team NCAA Tournament hosted by Penn State. Without it, Ohio State would need to be one of the two highest ranked non-conference tournament winners to earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament field.
Ohio State is rolling, and has been since early January. There's still work to do, but this Buckeye squad is peaking at the right time and appears to be on the verge of something special.
Don't miss it.
