Olympic Recap: Women’s Volleyball Ranked Seventh In Preseason Poll, Wrestling Set For U20 World Championships
The American Volley Coaches Association (AVCA) announced its preseason poll on Monday, with Ohio State checking in at No. 7 just 11 days before the Buckeyes’ season begins.
Ohio State is coming off one of the best seasons in program history, finishing 27-6 with a program-record 14 weeks spent in the AVCA’s top 10. The Buckeyes also reached the highest ranking in program history, picked third in the AVCA’s poll on Sept. 13 and 20. The Buckeyes were selected to finish fourth in the conference this season in the Big Ten’s preseason poll.
Nebraska took first in the poll with 1,538 points and 24 first-place votes, followed by Texas (1,528 points, 27 first-place votes), Wisconsin (1,439 points, 12 first-place votes), Louisville (1,317 points, one first-place vote) and Minnesota (1,251 points) rounding out the top five.
Ohio State’s season begins with back-to-back matches against No. 2 Texas on Aug. 26 and 27.
Nick Feldman, Nic Bouzakis Learn Opening Draw For U20 World Championships
Two members of the Ohio State wrestling team are set to compete in the 2022 U20 Junior World Championships which began Monday morning in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Nick Feldman (125kg) will open with either Georgia Ivanov of Bulgari or Ryusei Fujita of Japan, of which Ivanov earned bronze at the 2022 U20 European Championships. The winner will face either Lyova Gevorgyan of Armenia, Merat Suleimanashvili of Georgia or Amirreza Masoumi or Iran.
Nic Bouzakis (61kg), meanwhile, will take on Arsian Rakhimov of Uzbekistan, who won the bronze medal at the 2022 U20 Asian Championships and is a previous gold medal winner at the 2018 U17 Asian Championships.
Bouzakis and Feldman enter the U20 Junior World Championships fresh off winning gold at the U20 Pan American Championships in Oaxtepec, Mexico, in July. Redshirt freshman Andre Gonzalez (57kg) also took hold gold at the event.
Three Women’s Soccer Players Land On Preseason Watch List
Talani Barnett, forward Kayla Fischer and defender Sydney Jones – all representing the Ohio State women’s soccer team – were named as Big Ten Women’s Soccer Players to Watch for the incoming season.
Fourth-year defender/midfielder Barnett has appeared in 69 games, which is the most of any player on the team, and has two goals and three assists during her career with the Buckeyes. She earned third-team All-Big Ten honors in the 2021 spring season and was part of the All-Freshman Team in 2018.
Fourth-year forward Fischer returns for her senior season as a two-time All-Big Ten honoree, and enters the season with 20 goals on 239 career shots to go with 17 assists. She earned All-Big Ten Freshman Team honors in 2018.
Second-year defender Jones started all 20 games for Ohio State last season and was named a to the All-Big Ten Freshman Team, and received an invite to the USA U20 Training Camp this summer.
Ohio State – which returns 15 letter winners and eight starters from last year’s squad that made the program’s 15th NCAA tournament appearance – will open the season on Aug. 18 at Kansas.