Buckeye volleyball rebounds with sweep at Northern Kentucky
Thursday, February 5, 2026
By Kevin Rouch
krouch@cbussports.com
Aaron Grimm goes up for the kill against Northern Kentucky at Regents Hall Thursday. Grimm led the Buckeyes with four blocks. Photo: Kevin Rouch
After a trip to Southern California last weekend, the Ohio State men’s volleyball team began MIVA conference play with a 3-0 win at Northern Kentucky Thursday. The Buckeyes were not at full strength, missing outside hitters Stanislaw Chacinski and Dan Hurley, but took control down the stretch for the victory.
“I thought we fought through some early jitters. First tough road environment of the year,” said OSU head coach Kevin Burch. “I mean, obviously, L.A. was tough, but just the environment in general was great here. They did a good job of packing the house and getting a lot of people. And the band was loud.”
The NKU Norse are in their first year of play, stocked with 13 freshmen, and they competed well against the #12-ranked Buckeyes. Head coach Jim Palilonis has experience at MIVA schools Purdue Fort Wayne and Ball State.
“J.P.’s been around this conference a long time,” said Burch. “He’s recruited really, really well in the first year of the program. They’re supporting this program, from what I can tell, pretty well and he’s got good athletes over there.”
Jack O’Riordan dives for a dig during Ohio State’s first MIVA matchup of the season at Northern Kentucky Thursday. Photo: Kevin Rouch
The Buckeyes were paced by opposite hitter Shane Wetzel, who led all players with 14 kills and posted an impressive attack percentage of .522. The senior from Lake Mary, Florida also recorded seven digs. Outside hitter Owen Pickering and middle blocker Eliel Salva-Torres each had eight kills on the evening.
Setter Daniel Henwood Rodriguez had a match-high 33 assists, while libero Drew Hudson also had seven digs. Pickering led Ohio State with four blocks. If the Buckeyes have anything to work on, based on their performance against the Norse Thursday, it would be avoiding service errors.
“We had seven service errors in the first, six in the second, and seven in the third,” Burch pointed out. “So, it’s just way too many for us, especially for how we were serving. We weren’t serving aggressive enough to miss that many.”
Shane Wetzel elevates for one of his 14 kills against the Northern Kentucky Norse Thursday at Regents Hall. Photo: Kevin Rouch
Ohio State was coming off two grueling road losses, to #1-ranked UCLA last Thursday and #4 USC on Friday. Both teams are undefeated so far this season. OSU and the Bruins set an NCAA record in their second set, going 94 games (48-46) before a winner was determined. USC won Friday’s match 3-2, nabbing the final two sets.
“You know, it’s funny,” noted Burch. “I’m not a big believer in moral victories. But, in those two matches, we came away earning confidence, so (we’re) a more confident team than we were going into it.”
At USC, certainly we shot ourselves in the foot and gave that match away. Gave away a lot of errors in sets four and five. And as a coach, you want to be careful about making sure that my message, just because it’s about limiting errors, it’s not about continuing to stay aggressive. We’ve got to find a balance there.”
The Buckeyes are back in action Sunday, taking on the Central State Marauders in a non-conference matchup at the Covelli Center beginning at 3:00 p.m. All of the action can be seen on Big Ten+.
Drew Hudson (left) and Owen Pickering both look to handle a Northern Kentucky serve during Ohio State’s opening MIVA match of the season Thursday. Photo: Kevin Rouch