State College, Pa. • Forget the schools’ respective places in the national pecking order of college athletics. When BYU and Ohio State collide in Saturday’s NCAA men’s volleyball championship match at Penn State’s Rec Hall, the bulk of the pressure will seemingly be on the Cougars, believe it or not. BYU coach Shawn Olmstead’s team doesn’t see it that way. It is just not in this fun-loving outfit’s DNA to get stressed over anything, as they reiterated during Friday’s pre-finals news conference. But in the national volleyball realm, it is true. Third-seeded Ohio State (30-3) has a slightly better record and boasts the National Player of the Year in Frenchman Nicolas Szerszen and National Coach of the Year in Pete Hanson. The Buckeyes, who won the 2011 national title, have won 22 straight matches. But they play in a weaker conference, the MIVA, and were taken to five sets in a semifinal Thursday night by a UCLA team that BYU handled three times. “I would say we are fairly even,” said OSU freshman middle blocker Blake Leeson, from Mequon, Wis. “I would say, if anything, we might be a little bit of an underdog, just because of how the seeding goes, if you want to look at it that way. …
Continue Reading: BYU men’s volleyball: Cougars loose and confident heading into title match vs. Ohio State
