PORTLAND, Ore. – The Vikings depth game into play in a big way as they came back from down two sets to one to defeat the Colorado Buffaloes in five sets Saturday morning at the Peter W. Stott Center.
 
The Vikings (2-0 overall) took an extremely tight first set 28-26. After dropping the next two sets by scores of 25-18 and 25-17, Portland State came back with a 25-19 win in the fourth to send the match to a decisive fifth set.
 
The fifth was even closer than the first with 13 ties and eight lead changes. Senior OH Pati Anae gave the Vikings a 15-14 lead before an attacking error by the Buffaloes (1-1) secured the comeback win for the Vikings.
 
Anae was a force to be reckoned with in the final frame, tallying six kills and hitting .500 from the floor (6-1-10). She also tallied five of the team's 13 digs in the set. Anae was strong throughout the match, recording a career-high 28 kills to lead all players. She also hit an astounding .393 on 56 attacks. Anae added a match-high 18 digs for her first double-double of the season.
 
Over the first two matches this year, Anae has racked up 47 kills for a 5.22 kills per set mark. She is also hitting a team-high .406. She is second on the team with 3.00 digs per set as well.
 
Freshman OH Caitlin Bettenay added 14 kills in the match and came just shy of her second double-double to start her Portland State career with nine digs in the match. Sophomore OH Eva Linden added 12 kills along with a pair of blocks for the Vikings.
 
Fellow sophomore OH Jenna Mullen saw her first action of the season coming off the bench for 10 kills. Mullen's double-digit kill mark gave the Vikings four players with double-digit kills for the first time since they achieved the feat at North Dakota in 2013.
 
"We talk about depth a lot and with this team we have it," Head Coach Michael Seemann said following the comeback win. "We dug deep into our bench and every single person that was called upon elevated the level of our team."
 
The Vikings needed nearly every player on the roster to come in and produce to withstand the Colorado attack. The Buffaloes out-hit the Vikings hitting .311-to-.234 for the match with four players with double-digit kills.
 
The biggest strength for Colorado Saturday morning was its play at the net. The Buffaloes combined for 22.0 blocks in the match led by Naghede Abu who tallied 15 blocking assists. Joslyn Hayes added 11 blocking assists and each recorded double-digit kills for double-doubles.
 
"I think that speaks a lot to our hitters," Seemann said of the Buffaloes' blocking. "We were able to stay aggressive. Sometimes when you get blocked that much you resort to tipping, and we did not. We tipped as a weapon, never out of desperation."
 
Neither team could really separate in the first set as the score bounced back and forth with 12 ties and four lead changes. Down 26-25, Anae came through with a big kill to tie the set at 26-26. After a Colorado Attacking error, Anae finished out the set with her eighth kill of the frame. She hit .636 (8-1-11) in the first set alone.
 
The Vikings got caught in a couple of bad rotations in the second set and fell behind 13-5. They were able to cut the lead down a bit but fell 25-18 in the second. It was the same script after the break in the fourth as the Buffaloes took a 2-1 lead in the match with a 25-17 win in the third.
 
Portland State flipped the script in the fourth with a couple good rotations of its own. The Vikings opened up the set on a 5-1 run before extending their lead to 11-5 a few points later. Colorado cut the lead to two points at 19-17 but the Vikings took six of the final eight points to take the set 25-19.
 
Anae's six kill performance in the fifth frame propelled the Vikings to the comeback five-set win over the Buffaloes.
 
The win gives Seemann his first win over a Pacific-12 Conference opponent and the program its first win over a Pac-12 team since the Vikings defeated Oregon in 2005.
 
The Vikings will try and make it a clean sweep over the opening weekend of the season Saturday night against Texas Tech. The Red Raiders lost to Colorado in five sets Friday night.
 
NOTES:
• Pati Anae recorded a career-high 28 kills while hitting .393.
• Pati Anae recorded her first double-double of the season with 28 kills and 18 digs.
• Kylie Copple recorded her first double-double of the season with 65 assists and 13 digs, both career highs.
• Portland State had three players with double-figure digs for the first time this season.
• Portland State had four players with double-figure kills for the first time since at North Dakota in 2013.
• Head Coach Michael Seemann picked up his first win over a Pac-12 opponent.
• It was the first program win against a Pac-12 opponent since defeating Oregon in 2005.