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CHENEY, Wash. – Megan Ellis and Garyn Schlatter had double-doubles and Nicole Bateham racked up 30 digs as Portland State clinched a spot in the Big Sky Conference Volleyball tournament with a 3-1 victory at Eastern Washington on Saturday night.

Set scores were 26-28, 25-23, 25-17, 25-11.

The four-team field for the Big Sky tourney was finalized on Saturday night with one week left in the regular season. At 12-3, Northern Colorado has the edge for the league title and has already secured the right to host next year's tournament, which goes annually to the previous year's regular season champ. The Vikings are in second at 11-4, followed by Sacramento State (9-5) and Eastern Washington (9-6).

PSU closes out the regular season next Saturday by hosting Sac State.

Against the Eagles, PSU played a decent first set and had it at set point, but couldn't close the deal. After allowing EWU to hit .283 in the frame, the Vikings' defense stiffened and limited the Eagles to just a .033 mark the rest of the match.

The Vikings trailed late in the opening frame, 21-14, before storming back. Four kills from Ellis helped fuel a 9-2 run that tied the score up at 23-all. PSU then had it at set point, 26-25, after a kill by Schlatter, but the Eagles pulled out the win by scoring the final three points on a pair of kills and a Laney Brown service ace.

"I think in that first set they (Eastern Washington) came out with a couple of different looks and it took awhile for us to adjust and pick up the rhythm on the court," said PSU Head Coach Michael Seemann. "Then we made a couple of foolish, uncharacrterisc errors. We had a shot to close it out but kind of gave it to them."

Eastern Washington jumped out to a quick 4-1 lead in the next set, but Portland State later went in front, 12-9, on an ace by Bateham. The set was tight from there and the Eagles led 22-19 after a kill by Cora Kellerman. PSU answered with four consecutive points to take a one-point advantage and closed the set on a 6-1 run for the victory.

After a close opening few minutes of the third set, Portland State broke free from a 5-5 tie with five unanswered points. Aubrey Mitchell had two kills and a block during the run, and Leigh-Ann Haataja had a kill and a block. Eastern Washington never seriously threatened again and the Vikings held several double-digit leads the remainder of the way, taking an 11-point advantage, 23-12, after Haataja stuffed an attack by Talia Fermantez.

PSU led the entire way in the final set to close out the match. After Eastern Washington pulled to within 5-4, the Vikings used a five-point run to put the set away. They later went in front 17-7 on an Eagles ball handling error and held a double-digit the rest of the frame.

Ellis led all players with 17 kills and added 12 digs, Schlatter tallied 40 assists and 13 digs, and Bateham registered her second 30-dig performance of the season. Mitchell chipped in 12 kills and six blocks, and Haatja had eight kills and six blocks.

Portland State (16-12) outblocked the Eagles 13 to 6, with Katie O'Brien recording seven stops.

Kellerman paced the Eagles (13-13) with 13 kills and 16 digs.

NOTES: Kasi Clark dug 12 balls for PSU, one off her career high ... Portland State has won seven straight over EWU and three in a row in Cheney ... Seemann needs one more victory to reach 100 on the Park Blocks. He is 99-46 in four-plus seasons ... the victory also clinched the Dam Cup for PSU for the second straight year. In its second season of existence, the so-named rivalry series refers to the four dams linking Oregon and Washington that one passes on the 339-mile drive from the PSU campus to the EWU campus. Nine points are needed to win the Dam Cup, and the Vikings lead 9-0 after sweeping the volleyball series (four points), winning the football game (three points) and winning the soccer match (two points).