John Klanac

Three Orchard Park High School graduates have helped their collegiate volleyball teams advance to this year’s Final Four to be held in Rec Hall on the the campus of Penn State University on Thursday, May 5 and Saturday, May 7.

John Klanac (OP ’06) and Mike Stefani (OP ’09) are outside hitters on the Ohio State University men’s volleyball team that defeated Loyola-Chicago in the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association championship three games to one (22-25, 25-20, 25-16, 25-17).

Klanac earned a .500 hitting percentage with a team-high 16 kills and 18.5 points.

Tom Comfort, a 2009 graduate of Orchard Park, is the opposite hitter for the Nittany Lions. In the team’s 3-0 sweep over Springfield College (25-20,25-14,26-24), Comfort earned 11 kills and picked up five defensive digs in the victory.

To add to the excitement of having three OP graduates in the Final Four, Ohio State and Penn State are slated to go head-to-head in the semifinal on Thursday, May 5 at 9 p.m. The squads split their two regular season meetings.

The trip to the Final Four is Klanac’s fourth and the second for both Stefani and Comfort.

The University of Southern California and UC-Santa Barbara are playing in the other semifinal.

Both semifinals and the championship (Saturday, May 7 at 7 p.m.) will be aired on ESPN2 and can be seen on ESPN3.com.