Here's who St. Xavier, McNicholas could see on path to OHSAA boys volleyball championship

St. Xavier and McNicholas need two more wins each to cap their 2024 seasons as Ohio High School Athletic Association state champions.

The OHSAA state tournament begins on Saturday, May 25, at the Pam Evans Smith Arena at Wittenberg University.

McNicholas plays its semifinal match at 3 p.m. with St. Xavier following at 5 p.m. in the Division I semi. Should they advance to the state finals on Sunday, the Division II final begins the day at noon with Division I scheduled for a 3 p.m. start.

Before the OHSAA state tournament start, take a look at the paths St. Xavier and McNicholas will have to take for those state championships.

How McNicholas drew Independence in the semifinals

In last year's inaugural OHSAA boys volleyball state tournament, McNicholas and Independence reached but fell in the state semifinals. This season, both are back in the tournament and will face off in the semis.

McNicholas clinched the Division II, Region 8 championship as the top seed with a five-set victory over Fenwick in the finals. Independence, the No. 5 seed in Region 7, needed to pull off some upsets to reach state.

The second-year program cruised through the first two rounds, sweeping No. 6 Cleveland East Technical as well as No. 1 Cleveland Bard Early College. In those two matches, the smallest margin of victory in a set was eight points.

In the regional semifinals, Independence dropped its only set of the postseason. The Blue Devils beat No. 3 Cleveland Villa Angela-St. Joseph 25-17, 25-11, 21-25, 25-22 to reach the finals with No. 2 Chardon. Against Chardon, a 25-22, 25-14, 25-20 sweep sent the Blue Devils to a meeting with McNicholas.

Who awaits McNicholas in the state finals?

If the Rockets defeat Independence to reach the Division II state championship, who would await on the other side of the bracket?

In the first semifinal of the Division II tournament, Region 5 winner Columbus St. Charles and Region 6 champion Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary will face off.

St. Vincent-St. Mary (12-11) swept its way through the regional to return to the state tournament after finishing as the state runner-up last year.

St. Charles (23-2) dropped its season-opener to St. Xavier and an April 13 match to Fenwick in its only losses of the year. The Cardinals swept St. Vincent-St. Mary in their only meeting and twice beat McNicholas in regular season matchups.

In both meetings with St. Charles, McNicholas won the first set before dropping the remaining sets to lose the match.

"They know what it's like on the big stage," McNicholas head coach Julie Mulvey said about returning to state. "They know what they have to do. They've already played the team that we're probably going to meet and they know exactly what they need to do to win it."

St. Xavier and Olentangy Liberty rubber match comes in semifinals

The Division I state semifinal meeting with St. Xavier and Olentangy Liberty has the feeling of being the de facto state championship.

The St. Xavier Bombers and the Olentangy Liberty Patriots both enter the semifinals with a 25-1 record with the losses coming against each other.

St. Xavier topped Liberty in a quad match at Liberty, beating the Patriots 22-25, 25-16, 25-20 in a best-of-three match. Just under a month later at the Centerville Elite, the two met in the tournament finals where Liberty won 16-25, 25-23, 30-28, 25-19.

St. Xavier sophomore Joe Taggart paced the Bombers with 14 kills and had a pair of blocks in the first meeting, but did not play in the Centerville Elite tournament when Liberty topped the Bombers.

Liberty outside hitter Caden Whiteside was named the Division I state Player of the Year and head coach Dave Hale completed the top honors sweep with the Coach of the Year award.

Whiteside had 19 kills on 47 attacks in the first meeting with St. Xavier and had 28 kills on 61 attacks in the victory over the Bombers. St. Xavier's Andrew Berkemeier went head-to-head with Whiteside in game two, accumulating 30 kills on 52 attempts.

"They know how good Liberty is and can be," St. Xavier head coach Bill Ferris said. "They've got the state player of the year and our guys are looking forward to that challenge. Every single point is a big swing."

Familiar foes await in the finals

If St. Xavier gets the win over Liberty, the Bombers would see either Hilliard Darby or Cleveland St. Ignatius in the Division I state finals.

The Bombers met and defeated both teams in the regular season. On March 23 against Darby, St. Xavier topped the Panthers 25-19, 24-26, 25-18, 25-21 and in the Mount Vernon tri-match on April 6, St. Xavier came back to top St. Ignatius 27-29, 25-20, 25-17, 25-12.

A state championship for St. Xavier would be the fourth in the program's history after last bringing it home in 2019. That season, St. Xavier topped Darby in the semifinals before beating Moeller for the championship.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Looking at the path to volleyball titles for St. Xavier, McNicholas