The Ohio State men’s volleyball team captured the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association tournament championship Saturday night in Muncie, Indiana with a 3-1 victory over the top-seeded Ball State Cardinals. It was the 18th MIVA tourney title for the Buckeyes, the first for head coach Kevin Burch, whose squad also claimed the league’s regular season crown.

With the victory, the Buckeyes earned an automatic bid to this year’s NCAA tournament. The team will learn who its opponent in the first round will be at 1:00 p.m. today on the tournament selection show to be streamed live on NCAA.com.

Having covered the team for the last two months, the entire period since CBUSsports.com was launched, here are the top five reasons why I will be watching every minute of the Bucks’ tournament run and suggest you do the same.

Reason #1 – The setter

The setter in volleyball is really the quarterback of the squad. He is most often the person making the second hit of the possession, deciding quickly how he will set the ball up for the kill. That requires the ability to hit the ball high and low, in front of him and behind, from a distance and at the net, and from a variety of arm angles.

The OSU starting setter is red-shirt junior Michael Wright from Richmond, Virginia. He was the MIVA tournament MVP. In the championship match against Ball State, Wright had nine digs, two kills, two blocks, two service aces, and 54 assists … yes, 54 assists. The Buckeyes had an attack percentage of .363 in the match, which is extraordinary, mostly due to Wright’s efforts in setting up the front line.

Reason #2 – The libero

There are only six players on a volleyball court for each team. My daughter Katie played volleyball growing up and I learned the basics of “dig-set-spike” immediately upon attending the first fourth grade match in which she played. That basic pattern is essentially the same at the collegiate level.

The initial dig is usually the assignment of the libero. You’ll know the libero because he wears a different color uniform than the rest of his teammates. That’s because there are a lot of rules governing this unique position, which is interesting because a team isn’t even required to use one during a match.

When on the court, the libero plays only on the back row. According to the NCAA rules, he cannot “complete an attack hit” if the ball is above the net or perform an overhead set in front of the 10-foot line. He really is a specialist at throwing his body in front of spikes from the other side of the net.

Junior Thomas Poole, who was the two-time MVP at Dublin Jerome High School, is the starting libero for Ohio State. He is only 5’9″, more than a foot shorter than a couple of his teammates. In a sport which is played close to the rafters, he governs the initial action on his side of the net, often just inches from the floor.

Reason #3 – The blocker and the receiver

A middle blocker is an official position in volleyball. A “receiver” is not. Yet they both play a big role for the Buckeyes.

The OSU player assigned most often to block attempted kills from the other side of the net is Justin Howard, a 6’6″ red-shirt junior from Pacific Palisades, California. He led the Buckeyes in blocks against the Cardinals, converting his attempts into successful blocks more than 85% of the time.

For Howard, and all middle blockers, there’s a lot of jumping straight up in the air with their arms raised above their heads. Try it sometime. Oh, and at the top of your jump, have someone shoot a volleyball out of a cannon at you.

The receiver is really the player whose job it is to field the serve on defense and get it into play. That player for the Buckeyes is red-shirt senior Jack Stevens. Stevens is officially designated as an outside hitter. He had nine kills as a hitter in the Ball State match, but had 37 successful serve receptions with only one error.

Reason #4 – The high flyers

The reason that most volleyball fans come to the matches is to watch the hitters do their thing. The net in the collegiate men’s game stands 7 feet, 11 and 5/8 inches above the floor. It does not, however, appear to be much of an obstacle to the players assigned to smash the ball toward the defense on the other side.

Ohio State has more than its share of hitters who can elevate and accurately strike the ball for a winner. Junior Jacob Pasteur was the 2023 MIVA player of the year. He was fifth in the country in kills and led the Buckeyes Saturday with 19.

There is also plenty of power in the underclassman ranks for the Bucks. Sophomore Cole Young, who had a team-leading kill percentage of .643 against Ball State, and freshman Shane Wetzel, with 16 kills Saturday, pace a youth movement that will be fun to watch for the next several years and beyond.