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SAN JOSE – Led by the play of Whitney Phillips on the outside and superb setting by Garyn Schlatter, Portland State snapped its longest losing streak in seven years with a convincing sweep of Cal State Northridge on Saturday afternoon in San Jose.

Set scores were 25-18, 25-19, 25-22.

Phillips amassed 19 kills and a .357 hitting mark, while Schlatter dished out 23 assists and dug 10 balls for her third double-double.

"Both of them played very well today," said PSU Head Coach Michael Seemann, "but more importantly I thought they defended well.

"Garyn distributed the ball the way we need her to and Whitney took some massive swings for us. She carried us at times and got us through some tough moments."

Both players tallied three block assists as Portland State outblocked the Matadors, 12.0-3.0. Phillips also tacked on six of the Vikings' 52 digs.

Cal State Northridge (3-6) took an early 7-6 lead in the first set on a service ace by Cindy Ortiz, but the Vikings countered with seven straight points for a 13-7 advantage. PSU took its biggest lead, 20-11, on a kill by Christie Hamilton, then held off a late Matadors rally.

The Vikings (4-6) raced out to a 4-1 lead in set two, benefiting from a pair of kills by Phillips and another off the arm of Alexa Rosendale. CSUN answered back with three straight points and then went ahead, 7-5, on yet another ace by Ortiz. With the score knotted up at 18-18, Lana Zielke slammed home a kill to ignite a 4-0 Portland State run.

Set three was a back-and-forth affair that featured 10 tie scores, including eight within the first 16 points. Portland State started to distance itself from the Matadors after the last tie at 15-15. Back-to-back attack errors by Cal State Northridge put the Vikings up by two and another a few plays later gave them a 20-16 lead. CSUN got to within 20-19 on a kill by Mahina Haina and two Viking hitting errors, but two kills by Phillips, sandwiched around a Matadors attack error, made it 23-19.

The victory snapped a four-match losing streak for the Vikings, their longest since 2003.

"I told the team after the match that this is a good start for us, especially after what happened yesterday," Seemann said, referring to the Vikings' pair of losses on Friday. "It's a positive that we ended our non-conference schedule with a win and now we can use this in training as we get ready for the start of conference action."

While Phillips was the lone Portland State player with more than 10 kills, the Vikings still had a balanced offensive attack. Rosendale registered nine kills, Zielke had five and hit .500, while Hamilton and Schlatter both recorded four. The Vikings hit .290, their second best percentage of the season, and were above the .300 mark until the very end.

Defensively for the Vikings, Diana Villalpando racked up 14 digs, Rosendale had 11 more, Cara Olden led all players with seven blocks and Zielke tallied five of her own. Olden set a new career-high in blocks for the second straight day after tallying six last night against San Jose State.

On the other side of the net, Puneet Pataira led CSUN with eight kills and Ortiz had a match-high 19 digs.

The Vikings stay on the road for their next two matches and open up Big Sky Conference play next Friday at Montana State.

NOTES: After getting outblocked in their first eight matches of 2010, the Vikings have now posted more blocks in two straight matches ... the Vikings recorded their second sweep of the season ... Zielke served up two aces and already has set a new single-season career high with 10 ... Dominika Kristinikova just missed a double-double for PSU with 11 assists and nine digs ... PSU matched its season high in blocks ... the Vikings snapped a six-match losing streak to Cal State Northridge. The last time the two teams met up was on a Nov. 4, 2000, when the Matadors were a member of the Big Sky.