Jake Langlois rises up for the hit at the NCAA Tournament in Columbus, Ohio. (Jaren Wilkey/BYU Photo)
The BYU men's volleyball team was swept by Ohio State (25-19, 25-20, 25-22) in the national championship on Saturday night in Columbus, Ohio.
'Congrats to Ohio State on an outstanding season,' said BYU coach Shawn Olmstead. 'They definitely played a better volleyball match than we did tonight. I feel for these guys. I wish it was a different result, but it's not. How we handle these losses will show a lot about us as a team.'
Jake Langlois led the Cougars with eight kills while Leo Durkin contributed 24 assists and Ben Patch added six kills and three aces in the defeat.
As a team, the Cougars had 16 errors and 33 kills while Ohio State had 13 errors and 42 kills.
The first set remained competitive until a 10-2 Buckeye run gave Ohio State a 16-9 lead.
BYU surrendered the first set 25-19 on a service error; it was one of their nine errors in the set.
Ohio State jumped out to an 18-11 lead in the second set, forcing a BYU substitution. Patch came in and helped the Cougars climb back into the set. His strong serving brought BYU to within three at 21-18.
But the rally came up short and a BYU attack error gave the Buckeyes the second set.
With a strong home crowd behind them, the Buckeyes dominated the third and final set despite another late BYU rally.
The title is Ohio State´s second-consecutive national championship. The Buckeyes swept BYU in last year´s title match as well.
BYU has made it to the national championship match three times in the last five years, but the Cougars haven't won a title since 2004.
The Cougars were also swept by UC Irvine in the 2013 title game at UCLA.