The top-ranked BYU men’s volleyball team was named the No. 1 team in the nation in the preseason, regained it at the end of the regular season, and took the top overall ranking into the NCAA Tournament this week.

But none of that will matter, perhaps, if the Cougars can’t finish the year with the No. 1 next to their names.

BYU (27-3) will face third-seeded Ohio State in the NCAA men’s volleyball championship Saturday at 6 p.m. MDT on ESPN2.

But don’t expect that to change anything about the Cougars.

“We understand that this is the national championship, and it is what it is,” BYU coach Shawn Olmstead told reporters Friday. “But it’s also an opportunity for us to get better. If we can do that, we’re going to be in a good spot.

“Our approach is going to be exactly the same.”

Olmstead knows a thing or two about championship games. The former BYU libero played a key role on the 2004 national champions, which the Cougars won 3-2 over Long Beach State in Hawaii in a season that included a 21-match win streak.

He also coached the BYU women’s team to the national championship, where the Cougars fell to Penn State, but not before making women’s volleyball history a year before taking over the men’s program.

What’s his secret? Players who work hard and take direction, Olmstead said.

Oh, and one more thing, according to BYU opposite Ben Patch.

“The secret is love,” said Patch, who faces the Buckeyes a year after returning from a two-year mission for the LDS Church in Columbus, Ohio. “You won’t find a coach who loves his players more than Shawn. He came to this program with so much humility and so much love. He’s the type of coach who will text you in the middle of the night to make sure you are OK.”

Bouncing the Bucks won’t be easy for BYU. Ohio State (30-3) takes its own 22-match winning streak into Penn State’s Rec Hall on Saturday, the program’s longest winning streak since 1998.

The Buckeyes like to pride themselves as the underdogs against the No. 1-ranked team in the nation. But they also boast national player of the year Nicolas Szerszen and national coach of the year Pete Hanson.

Szerszen already owns Ohio State’s program record for career aces in just two years, a span that has seen him start every game, and he also ranks No. 17 in Buckeyes history in kills.

“They’re a good team, and we’ve known that,” Olmstead said. “They’re a quality team that is riding some really nice momentum right now. They are aggressive at the service line, and aren’t afraid to get after it.

“It’s a good, solid, all-around team as you’d expect from any of the opponents at this point in the season.”

NCAA semifinal recap

'Awesome' Sander leads No. 1 BYU volleyball by Long Beach, will face Ohio St. in final

Brenden Sander had 14 kills, Ben Patch added 13 and Jake Langlois supplied eight kills and three aces as No. 1 BYU took a 25-21, 23-25, 25-19, 25-18 win over the No. 4 49ers in the semifinals of the NCAA men’s volleyball tournament in University Park, Pennsylvania.

The Buckeyes rank second in the nation with 1.87 aces per set, and also second with a .349 average hitting percentage — behind only BYU's NCAA-best .362.

Patch doesn’t consider BYU’s opponent as the underdog, then, despite the rankings.

“Honestly, I think they are a whole team and so are we,” he said. “What I know about Ohio State is that they are a really hard-working team, and so are we. It’s really fun … it ends up being great volleyball.

“I don’t think they or we are the underdog. It’s just two great volleyball teams.”

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