COLUMBUS, Ohio – The University of Hawai'i men's volleyball team saw its incredible season come to an end to the hands of defending national champion Ohio State, Thursday in the semifinals of the NCAA Championship at St. John Arena. Set scores were 25-23, 25-18, 25-19.
 
The Rainbow Warriors (27-6) were trying to reach their third national title match but instead saw their season come to an end in the semifinals for the second time in program history. The Buckeyes (31-2) advances to the title match where they will meet Brigham Young, a straight-set winner over second-seeded Long Beach State.
 
UH was led by opposite Stijn van Tilburg, who finished with a match-high 13 kills. In their last match, senior outside hitter Kupono Fey capped his career with nine kills and a match-high eight digs while setter Jennings Franciskovic recorded a match-high 32 assists with two digs, a service ace and the team's lone block of the game. Fellow senior Hendrik Mol got the start after missing the team's last match against Penn State due to injury. He tallied five kills and a dig.
 
The nation's leader in blocking, the Warriors managed only one block in the match, compared to 9.5 for the Buckeyes. OSU also won the battle at the service line with six aces including five by Nicolas Szerszen, four of which occurred in the second set.
 
In the first set, OSU tallied 5.5 blocks before the media timeout to take a 15-11 lead. UH closed to within one at 20-19 after consecutive kills by Mol and van Tilburg and tied it at 22 after an OSU hitting error. But back-to-back kills gave the Buckeyes set point. After a UH point, OSU benefited on a questionable no-call on a double contact to take the first set.
 
With the score tied at 8-8 in Set 2, the Buckeyes scored seven straight behind the powerful serving by Szerszen, who ripped four aces during that run. OSU tallied three more blocks to lead by as much as eight before the Warriors inched to within five at 22-17. But the Buckeyes scored three of the final four points to take the set a 2-0 lead in the match.
 
Szerszen's fifth ace gave the Buckeyes a 10-6 lead in Set 3. The Buckeyes held a cushion until Franciskovic's ace pulled UH to within 18-14. Soon afterwards  van Tilburg buried his 13^th kill of the match to keep their deficit to four points. But Ohio State then scored three straight points to pull ahead, 22-15 from which the Rainbow Warriors could not recover from.
 
The championship match is set for Saturday at 7:00 p.m. ET (1:00 p.m. HT) and will be televised nationally on ESPN2.