The Ohio State men’s volleyball team struggled to find its footing against some of the nation’s elite teams, which gathered at the Outrigger Invitational in Honolulu this past weekend.
While OSU improved to 2-0 on the season with a 3-2 win against host the University of Hawaii Warriors Thursday, the Buckeyes (2-2) dropped back-to-back showdowns against No. 7 Penn State and No. 5 UCLA.
Against the Nittany Lions, OSU was swept 3-0 (24-26, 17-25, 22-25) Saturday as an evenly-matched first set was not enough in the end for the Buckeyes, which failed to take advantage of leads throughout the match.
But in their contest with the Bruins, victory seemed to be within reach for OSU. During the deciding fifth set, the Buckeyes led multiple times, including a 12-9 advantage that left three points away from pulling off the upset. UCLA, though, stormed back, winning six of the next seven points, and handed OSU its first defeat of the year, 3-2 (25-17, 22-25, 25-18, 18-25, 13-15).
The Buckeyes had better luck against the unranked Warriors, which took OSU to five sets before finally conceding the match, 3-2 (22-25, 25-23, 20-25, 25-17, 15-12).
Redshirt sophomores setter Peter Heinen and opposite Andrew Lutz and sophomore outside hitter Michael Henchy led the charge against Hawaii to help put the team at 2-0 on the season heading into the top 10 matchups that stood ahead for the Buckeyes.
Next weekend the Buckeyes will look to stop its current losing streak when they travel to Loretto, Pa. to take on Saint Francis (PA) at 3 p.m. in a rematch of the first game of the season, a 3-0 victory for OSU.