Last night, the No. 1 Stanford men’s volleyball team swept the No. 4 Ohio State Buckeyes (22-8) in the NCAA semifinals, keeping its storied season—and national championship aspirations—alive.

Playing host to both the semifinals and the national title game, Maples Pavilion was transformed. Blue and red sport court tiles covered the wooden floors, barriers reading “2010 Men’s Volleyball Championship” surrounded the court and television cameras hovered in the background. But amid the glitz and glamour of the NCAA Tournament, the Cardinal (23-6) kept its cool.

“We looked at it as just another game in Maples,” said senior All-American setter and American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) National Player of the Year Kawika Shoji. “There were some cameras and some more people in there, but I think we all did a really good job of focusing on the court and not getting too distracted.”

After a brief video welcome featuring several Stanford players aired on the overhead screens, the starting lineups were announced and the match commenced.

The first game set the tone for the majority of the match: toughly served balls, dominant blocking, all-out defense and powerful swings from two well-matched teams. The teams went back and forth for the duration, with one squad taking a one-point lead and the other re-tying the game.

But the Card took control near the end of the set as sophomore outside hitter Brad Lawson served two aces in a row, senior opposite Evan Romero killed a ball off a Buckeye’s chest and junior outside hitter Spencer McLachlin stepped in to assist a Lawson kill from the back row. To give the Card set point, sophomore middle blocker Gus Ellis blocked a ball, which was then dug by Ohio State’s libero before Ellis put it down for the kill. With no blockers in sight, Romero killed a ball to the deep cross corner, winning the set 30-25.

“We’re excited that we were able to step up our game late in the first game to kind of extend the lead,” said head coach John Kosty. “And then we played Stanford volleyball. We served well and we passed well; and that’s what this team is all about.”

Similar to the first set, the Buckeyes won the first point of the second set, only to have Stanford return a string of powerful plays. Romero came alive, putting down consecutive kills followed by two Romero-Ellis roof blocks to bring the score to 5-2.

Ohio State took advantage of Stanford errors—Romero had one particularly wild serve that almost ended up in the student section—and put up a consistently solid block to keep the score close.

Yet Stanford could not be contained. After Romero slammed a powerful kill down at 17-13, he turned around to his team yelling, “Let’s go!” His words ignited the team; soon after, senior middle blocker Garrett Werner pounded a ball against a Buckeye’s shoulder and a Lawson tip was shanked into the stands by the Buckeyes. An Ohio State hit landed just out, and the Card took the second set, 30-26.

“I was a little wild my freshman year, but the coaches had extreme patience with me,” Romero said, reflecting on his on-court passion. “They’ve helped me with different tools to control it and be able to bring something different. I’m glad that I’m able to bring some fire to the team.”

The third set opened with a sneaky Kawika Shoji dump on the second ball, and the game remained in Stanford’s favor for the duration. The Card went on a run, with a solo block from McLachlin, a massive Ohio State net violation and a four-person joust at the net from which Lawson emerged victorious.

Ohio State had its fluke points—an over-passed dig that went down for the kill—but Stanford’s scrappy defense and athletic play prevailed. Sophomore libero Erik Shoji had multiple one-handed digs to keep the ball in play, while his brother Kawika put up a one-handed back set for Romero to kill.

As the Stanford team got hotter as the match persisted, Ohio State showed signs of collapse. The Buckeyes missed two serves late in game three following long Stanford runs, and the Cardinal frontline used Ohio State’s block time after time.

Within points of victory, Stanford’s student section began to sing, “Nah, nah, nah, nah, hey, hey, hey, goodbye,” followed by chants of, “We’re going to the ship.” At match point, Ohio State perfectly passed McLachlin’s serve and set up a hitter for the kill, only to be authoritatively stuffed by Lawson. Stanford won the set, 30-17.

“As far as the game overall, Ohio State came out playing very well, very tough,” Kawika Shoji said. “We had our work cut out for us—that’s why the game was close all the way to the early- or mid-20s. We weathered the storm, and put pressure on them in the end. We’re very resilient and mature. We hang in there.”

For the Card, Romero had 15 kills and a 0.500 hitting average, while Lawson closely followed with 14 on .323 hitting. Werner, who won the NCAA Elite 88 award for leading the NCAA Tournament academically with a 3.953 GPA in civil engineering, put down seven kills from the middle, while Ellis and McLachlin each tallied another six. Kawika Shoji had 44 assists, and Erik Shoji recorded 12 digs.

Sophomore opposite Shawn Sangrey led the Buckeye offense with 12 kills, although his seven errors brought his hitting percentage to a subpar 0.147. Junior middle blocker Kevin Heine added another nine kills and junior setter Steven Kehoe was a force on offense and defense, putting up 38 assists and recording seven digs.

But rather than getting caught up in tonight’s sweep, the Card is staying focused on the task at hand: preparing for its match against No. 3 seed Penn State, who handily swept No. 2 seed Cal State Northridge in the other semifinal, winning its first national championship since 1997.

“Penn State is a great team,” Romero said. “We’ve got a lot of studying and getting ready mentally and physically for the game [to do]. But we’re pumped up now and we still have to get that emotion going. At the same time, we have to take a step back and prepare ourselves for a very good team that’s up ahead and get ready for the final battle on Saturday.”

Next up for the Cardinal is the national championship game against Penn State. First serve is on Saturday at 4 p.m. at Maples Pavilion.