PORTLAND, Ore. – The Vikings struggled to get much going throughout their final match of the weekend, falling to the Texas Tech Red Raiders, 3-1, Saturday night at the Peter W. Stott Center.
 
Texas Tech (1-2 overall) took the first two sets by scores of 25-17 and 25-21 before the Vikings came back and won the third set 25-22. Portland State (2-1) fell behind early in the fourth and was unable to come back and force a fifth set, falling 25-17, to suffer their first loss of the season.
 
Senior OH Pati Anae led all players with 18 kills while hitting .214 for the match. She missed out on her second double-double of the day, tallying nine digs in the match.
 
Anae has had a tremendous start to the 2016 season. She leads the team with 65 kills, averaging 5.00 kills per set, well above her 2.84 kps average last season. She is also hitting for a high average, hitting .348 with a team-high 138 attacks through three matches. On the defensive side, she is second on the team with 2.77 digs per set and is third on the team with seven total blocks.
 
Sophomore MB Katy Wilson had a good offensive day with a season-high eight kills while hitting .429 in the match. She also added three aces at the service line.
 
Early in the first set with the score tied at 8-8, Texas Tech went on a 9-1 run to go up 17-9. Wilson ended the run with a kill and then followed it up with back-to-back aces to make it 17-12. That would be the closest the Vikings would get before falling 25-17 in the opening frame.
 
A small three-point run by the Red Raiders early in the second set gave them just enough of an advantage that they were able to go on and take the set 25-21.
 
The Vikings found themselves down early in the third set but were able to come back and tie the set at 14-14. After trading points to 16-16, a three-point run by PSU put the Vikings up 19-16. Texas Tech pulled the set within one at 22-21 but the Vikings closed it out on an Anae kill to win 25-22 in the third.
 
Portland State was not able to maintain its momentum heading into the fourth, falling behind 5-1 early in the set. No matter what the Vikings did they could not come back and tie the set, falling 25-17 to drop the match.
 
Anae was the only Vikings with double-figure kills in the match. TTU's Lauren Douglass led the Red Raiders with 17 kills.
 
Despite the tough loss to Texas Tech Saturday night, the Vikings are off to a terrific start to the season. They opened the season with back-to-back wins for the first time since 2010. Their win over Colorado Saturday morning was their first win over a Pacific-12 Conference opponent since defeating Oregon in 2005 and first under Head Coach Michael Seemann.
 
The Vikings hit the road next week for three matches in Fresno, Calif. where they will take on Fresno State, Portland, and DePaul.