Women's Volleyball Season Wrap Up

The regular seasons has come to a close for most teams around the country and the bracket has been drawn up for the road to the championship. Ohio State finished seventh in the Big Ten and received an at-large bid to extend its season into tournament play.

For the third consecutive year, the Ohio State (19-14) will travel to be a part of the NCAA Division I Volleyball Championship. The team will begin the tournament in Knoxville, Tennessee on Thursday afternoon when they take on the Middle Tennessee State Raiders. The Raiders (21-11) have seen tournament play for the last six years, under the direction of head coach Matt Peck, who is in his eighth season.

Although MTS has a better record than that of Ohio State, the statistics lean in Ohio State's favor. The Bucks have far more attack errors on the season than the Raiders, but no one on the MTS team even comes close to the numbers put up by Buckeye Mari Hole. Amanda Peterson is setting more balls per set than MTS's setter, and Ohio State has about 200 more kills on the year. The Raiders also have nothing on Sarah Mignin, who has nearly 63% more digs than the other team's libero.

The winner of that round will go on to face either Duke (21-8) or no.14 Tennessee (27-3) on Friday night. Should Ohio State get a win in round 2, it is likely that they will meet their old Big Ten pal no.3 Illinois (27-4) in the Florida Regional in Gainsville. Ohio State was only able to win one set in two matches against Illinois in the 2011 regular season. Under the direction of head coach Geoff Carlston, the Bucks have never won a game against the Fighting Illini.

But if we see a well prepared, collected Buckeye team like we have seen in the past, Ohio State should advance far in the bracket.

Last year, the Buckeyes defeated Lipscomb University in four sets in the first round of play. They then upset no.14 Dayton in five sets to move on no.3 Stanford in the regional semifinal, who they fell to in four sets.

The Big Ten is well represented this year with Illinois, Nebraska, Minnesota, Penn St. and Purdue all finishing in the nation's top 12. Interestingly enough, no.12 Minnesota (18-11) has the highest recorded losses of any seeded team this year. No.11 Penn St. looks to keep its national title from the previous four championships, but will have to call on younger players to step up after losing key seniors. Ohio State made semifinal appearances all the way back in 1991 and 1994, but the team has never seen a championship game.