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It’s all down to one match to decide the 2017 national championship.
Check out the NCAA Tournament finals between Ohio State and BYU to follow tonight and how to follow the match live.
No. 1 seed Ohio State (31-2, 16-0 MIVA) vs. No. 3 seed BYU (27-4, 16-2 MPSF)
Match vitals: 7 p.m. In Columbus, Ohio
Follow live: Live stats, Online video, Radio feed, In-match tweets, TV (ESPN2)
Season series: First meeting his season
Last meeting: Ohio State swept BYU in the 2016 NCAA Tournament finals
Last NCAA title: Ohio State (2016); BYU (2004)
NCAA finals record: Ohio State (2-2); BYU (3-2)
NCAA Tournament appearances: Ohio State (20); BYU (8)
NCAA Tournament all-time record: Ohio State (13-22); BYU (11-4)
What to know: BYU players said Friday that throughout the past year they would think about what went wrong in its NCAA Tournament finals three-game loss to Ohio State last year. The Cougars will now get their chance to avenge that loss, while the Buckeyes have a chance to win their third NCAA championship this decade. Ohio State and BYU for the second consecutive year will meet in the NCAA Tournament finals. This will be the seventh time since the NCAA Tournament started in 1970 that there will be a finals rematch. All-American outside attacker Nicolas Szerszen tied a NCAA Tournament record with five aces to help Ohio State sweep Hawai’i in the semifinals on Thursday. Szerszen has a nation-best 0.65 aces per game average and was named the 2017 Off the Block/Springbak, Inc. National Server of the Year. In addition, the Buckeyes had eight aces in a sweep against the Cougars to win the 2016 NCAA championship. This finals will also feature two of the top offenses in the nation. Ohio State leads the MIVA and is second in the nation with a .365 attack percentage, while BYU is fourth in the nation hitting .323. Both BYU setter Leo Durkin and Ohio State setter Christy Blough were named finalists for the 2017 Lloy Ball Award as the nation’s top setter. All-American outside attacker Jake Langlois leads BYU and is in the nation’s top 10 with 3.73 kills per game average. In addition, all-conference outside attacker Brenden Sander had a match-high 15 kills on a .619 attack percentage in a sweep against Long Beach State in the semifinals on Thursday. This was the fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament match in Sander’s career that he finished with double-digit kills and at least a .400 attack percentage. Sander in the 2016 finals had a team-high 14 kills while hitting .500 versus the Buckeyes. Ohio State All-American opposite Miles Johnson in that championship match last season led all players with 15 kills. Johnson also enters this finals ninth in the nation with a 3.85 kills per game average.