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PORTLAND, Ore. – Behind a career-high 18 kills from Lana Zielke and a triple-double by Garyn Schlatter, Portland State rallied for a 3-2 victory over Northern Colorado on Friday night in a crucial Big Sky Conference matchup.

Set scores were 25-27, 25-20, 22-25, 25-11, 15-10.

With the victory, Portland State (11-7) moves into a tie with the Bears (15-5) for first place in the conference at 6-1.

"It was a gutsy performance tonight," said Vikings head coach Michael Seemann. "I'm very pleased with the contributions we got from the bench and we made some huge defensive stands when we needed to.

"We had to make some adjustments because Kelly Arnold played fantastic tonight for them. She is a very, very good player."

The Vikings had the opening frame at set point, 24-22, but Northern Colorado scored three straight to go in front. A kill by Christie Hamilton tied the score for Portland State, yet it wasn't enough as the Bears won it on a PSU ball handling error and a kill by Ashley Lichtenberg.

"Certainly after that first set how we controlled it then gave it back we could have given up," Seemann said. "But we didn't and I was pleased to see the way the team responded to that."

After a slow first set, Whitney Phillips came alive with eight kills in the second stanza to carry Portland State to the 25-20 victory. The Vikings never trailed and took their largest lead at 21-14 on an attack error by Northern Colorado's Alyssa Wilson.

UNC took the third set behind the play of Arnold, who had nine kills and just one error. The sophomore outside hitter had five kills during one run that took the Bears from a one-point lead to a 12-8 advantage.

PSU attempted a comeback, rallying from a 21-14 deficit to get within 24-22 on a swing by Hamilton, but Brittany Crenshaw finished out the set for UNC with a kill.

The Viks carried the momentum over to the next frame and dominated throughout. They hit .385, never trailed and held the Bears to a .115 mark.

The back-and-forth chess match carried over into the final set. With the score knotted up at 8-8, Schlatter dumped a ball to the back right corner of the court and the Bears weren't able to get there.

Northern Colorado fought back, tying it up at 10 apiece, but it was all Portland State from there. Back-to-back UNC errors put the Viks up by two, before Hamilton hammered home a pair of kills and Phillips closed it out with a swing from the left.

Zielke's 18 kills paced a PSU offense that had four players finish in double-digits. She also hit .519 and tallied eight blocks.

Phillips (17 kills, 18 digs) and Megan Ellis (13 kills, 14 digs) both had double-doubles, while Schlatter tallied PSU's first triple-double since 2007 with 48 assists, 15 digs and 11 kills.

Defensively, Diana Villalpando led the Vikings with 19 digs, Dominika Kristinikova added nine and Nicole Bateham chipped in seven off the bench.

Arnold carried Northern Colorado, tallying 25 kills and hitting .306. Lichtenberg registered 14 kills, while Amanda Arterburn dug 33 balls.

Portland State, which has won eight of its last nine, takes on Northern Arizona tomorrow night at the Stott Center at 8 p.m.

NOTES: PSU's last triple-double came on Nov. 17, 2007, by Nique Fradella in a match against Sacramento State ... Schlatter's 48 assists and 11 kills were career-bests... Cara Olden had career-highs of nine kills and a .562 hitting percentage for PSU ... Hamilton added nine kills ... the Vikings have outhit their opponents in 10-straight matches ... the match featured 24 tie scores and 11 lead changes .. PSU is 5-0 all-time against the Bears at the Stott Center in Big Sky regular season matches.