BOISE, Idaho – After not defeating a Pacific-12 Conference opponent in over a decade, the Vikings now have two Pac-12 wins this season after taking down Arizona State, 3-1, Friday afternoon at the Boise State Invitational in Boise, Idaho.
 
The Vikings (8-3 overall) dropped the opening frame 25-18 before taking a close second set, 29-27, to split the first two. Building off its momentum in the second, Portland State took the third set by a score of 25-18 before taking the match with a 25-22 win in the fourth.
 
Arizona State (7-4) out-hit the Vikings .237-to-.217 for the match and had a plus-9.5 advantage in blocking but the Vikings were able to prevail with solid defensive play, strong serving, and offensive contribution from all over the court.
 
The Vikings out-hit the Sun Devils in each of the final three frames, posted more kills, more assists, more service aces, and more digs as a team in the match.
 
The outside hitting tandem of senior Pati Anae and freshman Caitlin Bettenay came up big again for the Vikings as the two combined for 34 of the team's 57 total kills in the match.
 
Anae racked up a match-high 19 kills while hitting .204 (19-9-49) for the match. She came up with nine digs, an ace, and a pair of blocks in the win. Anae has come up big when the Vikings need her this season. In the highly contested second set, which saw an astounding 22 ties and 10 lead changes, she tallied seven kills on 20 swings with six digs and a blocks.
 
Bettenay added 15 kills, eight digs, and a career-high four aces in the match. Her four aces were the most by a Viking this season. Three of her aces came in back-to-back-to-back fashion midway through the third set that extended the Vikings' lead from 9-6 to 12-6. After tallying five kills over the first two frames, she came up with five in each of the final two, to come one shy of her career high.
 
Junior S Erin Clark tallied 51 kills in the match to go along with six digs, a kill, and ace, and two blocks, including a solo stuff. Over the first two matches in Boise, Clark has tallied 96 total assists for an even 12.00 assists per set mark.
 
Junior L Tasha Bojanic was named the Big Sky Defensive Player of the Week last week and is making a case for a repeat honor. She posted her third 20-dig performance of the season with a match-high 23 digs. She averaged 5.18 digs per set last week but is on an even better pace this week with 5.25 digs per set over the first two matches. She too came up big when the Vikings needed her, coming up with nine digs in the marathon second set and seven more in the fourth.
 
Sophomore MB Katy Wilson had the most efficient day for the Vikings hitting .692 (10-1-13) with 10 kills on 13 swings. She came up with a pair of digs and a pair of blocks in the match. Sophomore OH Sarah Brennan added nine kills and a pair of the blocks for the Vikings.
 
The Sun Devils led wire-to-wire in the first with a 25-18 win in the opening frame. Arizona State jumped out to an early 9-1 lead behind three blocks and a pair of aces. The Vikings made some early adjustments and started to cut into the lead. They cut the lead to four points at 15-11 but another couple of runs by the Sun Devils propelled them to a 25-18 win.
 
The second set played just about as closely as could possibly be played. There were 22 ties and 10 lead changes in the second alone. Arizona State had a couple of two-point leads early at 5-3 and 6-4 but that would be the largest lead it would have. ASU had a set point at 24-23 that would have put the Vikings down 2-0 in the match but Anae came up with a big kill to even the set at 24-24.
 
Portland State came back with a pair of set points that Arizona State fought off. A block by the Sun Devils gave them another set point at 27-26 but Brennan, who was blocked on the previous point, came back with a kill to tie the set again. The Vikings then took the next two points on back-to-back attacking errors by the Sun Devils to take the set 29-27 and even the match at 1-1.
 
The Vikings, coming off their big win in the second, jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the third. Anae put the Vikings up 9-6 with a kill before three-straight aces from Bettenay put the Vikings up 12-6. A Wilson kill later in the set put the Vikings up 18-11. Bettenay closed out the set with her 10th kill of the match to give PSU the 25-18 win. Portland State led wire-to-wire in the third to go up 2-1.
 
The first half of the fourth set played fairly even. Tied at 16-16, Portland State rattled off four-straight points, which included a pair of solo blocks from sophomore MB Mikaelyn Sych and Anae. The run gave the Vikings a little bit of breathing room but the set was far from over.
 
A PSU ball handling error and an ASU aces pulled the Sun Devils within two at 24-22, which forced a Portland State timeout. Coming out of the timeout, Arizona State's Oluoma Okaro served the ball into the net to give the Vikings the 25-22 win in the fourth.
 
After being out-hit in the opening frame, Portland State out-hit Arizona State in each of the next three, including holding the Sun Devils to a .135 hitting mark in the fourth set.
 
The win improved the Vikings' record to 8-3 on the season, their best start to a season since the 2008 season when they started 12-3. Portland State is now 2-2 on the season when losing the first set and 2-1 when it splits the first two sets.
 
The Vikings can make it four straight winning weekends to start the season with a win over UC Davis Saturday morning at 8:30 a.m. PT. The Aggies are 5-6 on the season after falling to Boise State, 3-1, earlier Friday.
 
NOTES:
• Portland State is now 2-0 against Pac-12 opponents this season. Portland State had not defeated a Pac-12 opponent since Oregon in 2005.
• Portland State is 8-3 for the first time since 2008.
• Pati Anae posted her 11th straight double-digit kill performance.
• Erin Clark posted her fourth 50-assist match of the season.
• Caitlin Bettenay posted a team-high four aces, including three straight, against ASU.