COLUMBUS, Ohio -

The UC San Diego men's volleyball team lost to 10^th-ranked Ohio State 25-30, 22-30, 33-31, 17-30 on Friday night in St. John Arena. The loss drops UCSD to 0-2 while the Buckeyes improve to 4-0. The Tritons were led by Chris Sayers with 13 kills, while Garret Smith added 11 kills and hit at a .476 clip. Jon Daze added nine kills and Brooks Dierdorff finished with 47 assists.

Tied at 4-4 in game one, a Buckeye kill from Ben Spurlock (So./Fr., Stow, Ohio) and two Triton errors gave Ohio State a 7-4 lead. OSU took the lead to six several times but a 5-1 UC-San Diego run cut the lead to two at 20-18. At 23-19, OSU, a Sayers kill and two OSU errors cut the margin to one at 23-22. At 25-24, two Triton errors, a kill from Mark Greaves (Sr., Fenton, Mo.) and a block by Katz and Brett Versen (Jr./So., Centerville, Ohio) set game point at 29-24. A Sayers kill stopped the first game point but a Triton service error ended the game at 30-25. Ohio State hit .167 in the game to .059 for UC-San Diego.

From a 4-4 tie in game two, Ohio State scored five straight points to open a 9-4 lead. The run began with back-to-back kills from Klein, a Spurlock ace serve, a Triton error and an OSU block from Versen and Daniel Mathews (So., Shorewood, Wis.). At 21-13, Ohio State, UC-San Diego with kills from Sayers, Smith and Mike Reuter cut the lead to five at 21-16. Leading 27-22, the Buckeyes closed out the game with a Versen kill, a Katz-Spurlock block and a Klein kill to win the game, 30-22. OSU hit .500 for the game to .250 for UC-San Diego.

UC-San Diego broke a 5-5 tie with a kill from Russ Hardy. Three Buckeye errors followed to give the Tritons a 9-5 lead. At 12-8, Tritons, a Katz kill, a UC-San Diego error, a Spurlock-Mathews block and a Mathews' kill tied the game at 12.  Tied at 18, Ohio State took a 19-18 lead off a Triton error. UC-San Diego responded with two kills from Sayers and one from Jon Daze to take a 21-19 lead. At 24-22, a Mathews kill and a Triton error tied the game at 24. UC-San Diego took a 26-25 lead on an OSU error. Buckeye kills from Versen and Klein gave OSU a 27-26 lead. A Sayers kill tied the game at 27. At 28-all, a Mathews kill set game point at 29-28 for OSU. Sayers tied the game at 29 with a kill. A Klein kill made it 30-29 for OSU's second game point. A kill from Daze tied the game at 30 and his ace serve made it 31-20, UC-San Diego, serving game point. A Katz kill tied the game at 31. Smith, with a kill, gave the Tritons a 32-31 lead and serving its second game point. UC-San Diego closed out the game with a Brooks Dierdorff-John Mark Wendler block to win the game, 33-31. UC-San Diego hit .444 for the game to .357 for Ohio State.

UC-San Diego took a 1-0 lead in game four with a Wendler kill. Ohio State, with kills from Katz and Klein, a Triton error and blocks by Mathews and Versen and Klein and Versen took a 5-1 lead. Trailing 10-4, UC-San Diego used kills from Wendler and Hardy to cut the lead to 10-6. A Buckeye kill from Sam Stevens (Sr./Jr., Miami, Fla.) and a Katz ace serve put the OSU lead at 12-6.  An OSU error made it 12-7 but a Spurlock kill, a Mathews-Spurlock block and a triple block from Klein-Mathews-Spurlock opened a 15-7 Buckeye lead. At 25-16, Ohio State scored four straight points to reach match point at 29-16. The run started with a Katz kill. After a UC-San Diego error, kills from Klein and Versen set match point. A Buckeye error stopped the first match point at 29-17. A service error by UC-San Diego ended the game at 30-17, giving Ohio State a 3-1 win. Ohio State hit .583 in the game to .032 for UC-San Diego.

For the match, Ohio State hit .402 while UC-San Diego hit .217. The Buckeyes had a 67-56 advantage in kills and a five to one margin in ace serves. The Tritons gave up 21 service errors to 20 for the Buckeyes. Defensively, Ohio State had a 43-29 margin in digs with UC-San Diego's Hardy recording a match-high 11 and OSU's Mathews collecting a team-high 10. At the net, OSU had a 10.5 to 6.5 advantage in team blocks. OSU's Mathews and Versen shared match-high honors with five assist blocks each. Mathews recorded a match-high 54 assists for Ohio State while Dierdorff had 47.

UC San Diego and Ohio State will complete the two-match series Sunday at 7 p.m. in St. John Arena.