COLUMBUS, Ohio - The 10th-ranked Ohio State (16-10) men’s volleyball team has been seeded fourth in the NCAA National Championship semifinals and will face top-ranked and top-seed UC Irvine (25-5) in the second semifinal on Thursday, May 7 scheduled to start at 11 p.m. ET. The match will be shown live on ESPNU and will air on ESPN2 on a tape-delay basis on Friday, May 8 at noon ET.

The first semifinal will have fifth-ranked and second-seed Penn State (27-3), the defending national champion, playing fourth-ranked and third-seed Southern California (23-11) at 9 p.m. ET. The Penn State-Southern California match will be carried live on ESPN2 and ESPNU. The semifinal winners advance to the championship match Saturday, May 9 at 7 p.m. ET. and will be carried live on ESPN2.

Ohio State earned the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association automatic bid by winning the MIVA Tournament. UC Irvine received the at-large bid from the NCAA committee. Penn State won the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association tournament and Southern California won the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament to earn automatic bids.

The Buckeyes will be playing in their 16th championship semifinals. Ohio State is 2-16 in semifinal matches and 0-2 in championship matches. The Buckeyes advanced to the semifinals last season at UC Irvine where they lost 3-1 (30-21, 26-30, 30-22, 30-17) to Penn State.