Match Stats

#6 UC Irvine def. #1 Ohio State 3-0 (28-26, 25-19, 25-20)

UC Irvine moves to 15-6, Ohio State falls to 19-1

St. John Arena, Columbus, Ohio

Attendance: 1,321

Box Score

Heading into Saturday evening’s top 10 matchup against the 6th-ranked UC Irvine, it had been exactly 400 days since the Buckeyes had lost a game against an NCAA opponent.

And to the Anteaters from southern California, that was just long enough.

UC Irvine not only beat the top-ranked Buckeyes on Saturday to end their 42-game winning streak, they swept them 3-0 in St. John Arena. The Buckeyes hadn’t been swept since their last game of the 2015 season against Loyola, Chicago.

the Buckeyes’ offense was the killer on Saturday in an otherwise well-played game. They tied their season low in kills and had their lowest hitting percentage of the season. They still out-blocked Irvine 9-8 as a team, and had one of their better service games on the year with 9 aces and just 15 errors -two areas that have been relative strengths for the Buckeyes this season.

But it was a clean game from UCI that carried the way as they hit .361, including .466 on in-system sets. Irvine had only 7 service errors dug 35 balls on the night.

UCI had three players with double digit kills as part of a tight attack. Aaron Koubi had 13 kills (3 errors, 22 attacks, .466 percentage) to lead the way, with Tamir Hershko and Thomas Hodges each chipping in 11. Libero Dillon Hoffman also had 14 digs.

In total, just 6 players from each side even got swings at the ball, showing the intensity of the match.

For Ohio State, Nicolas Szerszen was held to just 7 kills, which is his season low by 2, on .077 hitting. Miles Johnson had 12 kills, but it took him 34 swings and 7 errors to get there, while Blake Leeson had only 2 kills and 3 blocks after a breakout 13-point game on Friday.

Ohio State’s historic streak ends at 42, which ties as the third-longest in NCAA history. UCLA has the record of 47 straight from 1979-1980 and again from 1983-1985, and also won 42 straight from 1981-1983. During the run, the Buckeyes won 83% of the sets (126 of 152), beat 6 top-5 opponents, beat 18 top-12 opponents, and won 18 road games.

Videos