National Champions!
By Casey Hansman
Pete did it.
It took more than a quarter century, but he did it.
Ohio State men’s volleyball defeated UC Santa Barbara 3-2 for its first national title under head coach Pete Hanson. It was OSU’s second trip to the national title game since Hanson took over in 1985, the other resulting in a runner-up finish to UCLA in 2000.
Hanson also led the Buckeyes to the national semifinals in 1986, 1987, 1993, 2001, and 2005.
What makes this championship even more spectacular is it’s only the third time in NCAA history that a team west of the Rocky Mountains has claimed the title. Penn State did it in 1994 and 2008.
Ohio State has played in its fair share of NCAA Championships, but has played in the title game only three times in program history.
“Sometimes the hardest match is the semifinals,” explained Hanson, “because there can be certain expectations for both teams to win, and on the other hand if you lose it is considered a disappointment.”
“We had a great group of guys the last 4-5 years. We recruited a great group of guys like Kevin Kehoe and John Klanac. Then we added good players that challenged each other, no one was satisfied by just being (in the semifinals), the key was we built our team step by step,” Hanson said.
Both Kehoe, a setter, and Klanac, an outside hitter, are fifth-year seniors, and both plan to play professionally overseas after this year.
Klanac said the finals match against UC Santa Barbara was definitely the closest match all year, and was very glad to be able to go out on top.
“This was our fourth straight year being in the Final Four, so we were prepared for distractions, but it was this group’s first championship match. It was a new experience for us, but the only nerves came from knowing we had a chance to win, but those nerves got set aside once the game started and we looked at the task at hand,” Kehoe said, “It was more than just redemption.”
The Buckeyes finished the regular season with a 26-6 record.
“We had a little rough patch in the regular season,” said Kehoe. “We were still getting on the same page, but we really clicked going into the postseason.”
OSU lost 3 out of 4 matches from March 24 to April 2. Hanson explained how each loss actually helped.
“Each loss was important, I know that may sound funny coming from a coach, but each match we lost either told us something about us, or the other team, or what we needed to do in the future,” Hanson said.
From this point on, Hanson said his team can certainly talk about how now the bar is set high for future years, but from his new group he will need to see how hard they work to achieve the same goals. “Saying I want to win isn’t enough, you really have to work for it,” said Hanson.
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Great season for the Ohio State Men’s volleyball team, and major props to Coach Hanson! GO BUCKS.