Ohio State’s Naomy Govou lines up a kill during Saturday’s sweep of Fresno State in the Jim Stone Challenge at the Covelli Center. (Press Pro Feature Photos)
Twenty four hours after a frustrating, if not discouraging, loss in their opener to Bowling Green, Ohio State’s volleyball program rebounded with an impressive straight-set win over Fresno State for their first win of the season.
Columbus, OH – Ohio State coach Jen Flynn Oldenburg wore a winning smile following the Buckeyes’ 3-0 shellacking of Fresno State Saturday afternoon, their first win of the 2026 volleyball season, and their first win following a hiccup in Friday’s four-set loss to Mid American Conference foe Bowling Green.
No hard feelings, right Jen?
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“I think it was nerves,” she offered up, explaining the difference in the way her young roster played Friday compared to how they rebounded on Saturday. “I really do. Nerves.”
Nerves in Big Ten volleyball, really?
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Thirty minutes earlier Fresno coach Leisa Rosen had expressed her own dissatisfaction, evidently, with her roster, making their 2026 debut in the Jim Stone Classic in much the same manner the Buckeyes had played Friday against Bowling Green. Fresno lost Friday to Northern Kentucky in five sets. Saturday the Buckeyes thumped the Bulldogs 25-21, 25-15 and 25-9.
“Long flight to get here,” said a Fresno player outside their locker room. “It’s like flying to Hawaii to get here, only it’s not Hawaii when you get here.”
And what kind of test was their first win, coming off a 6-22 season a year ago, a year that Flynn Oldenburg would as soon forget as try to explain.
“It really doesn’t matter,” she said to my question about gauging progress of the program. “In this sport anyone can beat anyone on a given day. And I say that with a grain of salt, but if you don’t take care of the ball teams at this level are going to beat you. And you saw that with how tight the first set was.”
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Another answer to the question would be that Fresno State was 7-22 a year ago under former Michigan assistant coach Leisa Rosen, in her fourth season at Fresno following 24 years in Ann Arbor. So like Ohio State, the Bulldogs have some digging out to do of their own. And compared to Friday, Saturday was a test passed with flying colors by the Buckeyes.
“We simply made too many mistakes against Bowling Green,” Flynn Oldenburg added. “They’re a solid team, they played well, and we did not take care of the ball. Today we had to rebound and that was what we talked about during our morning practice. It was about response, and how would we respond today.”
Setter Mia Tuman offers up one of her 30 assists in Saturday’s win over Fresno.
Fresno came out gamely in the first set, tying Ohio State at 11-11, 16-16, and 20-20 before the Buckeyes took advantage of Bulldog mistakes and won four of the last five points of the set…25-21.
The second set, however, must have driven Rosen up the wall as much as it delighted Flynn Oldenburg. There’s a phrase relevant to volleyball called “getting an opponent out of system.” Essentially, it’s about throwing off the timing necessary to receive the serve, make a good pass to the setter, and have the setter put the ball on one of your hitters to score with a kill over the net. Ohio State obviously made an adjustment between sets that totally flummoxed Fresno’s system.
“We did a better job of targeting our serve,” explained Flynn Oldenburg. “We preached being resilient this morning, taking care of the ball, and doing the things that we did not do last night. Today, we did a better job of controlling the serve and the first pass, something that’s equally important at every level of volleyball…fifth grade, high school, college, and professional. Every level. You receive serve and pass well and you can go on runs. We hit the zones we wanted to hit with the serves and it changed the match.”
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It got Fresno State badly out of system…25-15 in the second set, and 25-9 in the third played with mostly Buckeye reserves.
Ohio State spread the wealth offensively, with Hannah Jones leading them in kills with 12, and Namoi Govou with 10. Setter Mia Tuman finished with 30 assists, and defensively, libero Emily Avshalomov led both teams with 18 digs.
“In this sport anyone can beat anyone on a given day. And I say that with a grain of salt, but if you don’t take care of the ball teams at this level are going to beat you. ” – Jen Flynn Oldenburg
An important win at this point because it proved their response, their resilience, and the ability to execute a game plan, and in time for their 2 p.m. weekend finale on Sunday against Northern Kentucky (1-1), who has also beaten Fresno this weekend while losing to Bowling Green.
How important?
“We have four weeks before we begin Big Ten play, and four weeks to scout and gain information (Friday, Sept. 25, at Iowa) on teams that are ahead on our schedule,” Flynn Oldenburg added. “We have Ole Miss and Oklahoma coming up, we’re going to have tape on them because they played this weekend, and a lot more information on them than we had for the teams we played here this weekend.
“Scouting is big. Game plans are big. And you know you’re not going to stop everything, but you do your best to take away their best. That’s a fun part of the game and I enjoy that part of coaching.”
But who’s she fooling, eh? Winning Sunday against NKU would make them 2-1. Now that’s fun, with Mississippi and Oklahoma coming up this Wednesday and Thursday in Norman, Oklahoma.
Better than 1-2, every time.
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