Ohio State women’s volleyball’s deepest NCAA Tournament run in 18 years came to an end Saturday.
In their first Elite Eight game since 2004, Ohio State split the first two sets with Texas – the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament – before dropping the next two sets to suffer a season-ending 3-1 loss (18-25, 25-21, 13-25, 21-25) to the Longhorns.
Final from the NCAA regional finals.
— Ohio State Women's Volleyball (@OhioStateWVB) December 11, 2022
Thank you, Buckeye nation, for your support through a wonderful season!#GoBucks #Team53 pic.twitter.com/gJha3dXMUK
Even with the loss, the Buckeyes’ 2022 season will go down as one of the best in program history. It was only the fourth time since women’s volleyball became an NCAA sport that Ohio State made it to the Elite Eight, with the only previous coming in 1991 and 1994 – the only two times the Buckeyes have made it to the Final Four – and 2004.
Overall, Ohio State finishes the season with a 22-10 record. The Buckeyes have finished with a winning record and made it to at least the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament in all three of Jen Flynn Oldenburg’s first three seasons as their head coach; before she took over the program from Geoff Carlston, Ohio State had missed the NCAA Tournament with losing records in three straight years.
The stars of the season were junior Emily Londot and seniors Kylie Murr and Mac Podraza, who all earned first-team All-Big Ten honors with Murr earning Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and Podraza earning Big Ten Setter of the Year after the Buckeyes to a third-place tie in the conference standings. Londot was also the AVCA Regional Player of the Year, while Londot and Gabby Gonzales both made the all-regional team for their performance this week in Austin, where they led the Buckeyes to a Sweet 16 win over Minnesota before their loss to the Longhorns.
