PORTLAND - Portland State got back to its winning ways with a four-set win over the Northern Colorado Bears Thursday night on the campus of Concordia University in North Portland.
 
The win improved the Vikings to 13-4 overall and 4-1 in Big Sky Conference play, while ending a four-match losing streak to the Bears. Portland State is 13-4 for just the second time in its NCAA Division I history (1997-2017), the only other time being 2007.
 
Portland State took the match by scores of 25-15, 18-25, 25-19, and 25-15. It was the first four-set match that the Vikings played in nearly a month as each of the previous nine matches were played in three sets. They went 6-3 over that stretch. Northern Colorado fell to 9-9 overall and 2-3 in league play with the loss.
 
The Vikings served the Bears tough throughout the match, which led to Northern Colorado playing out of system quite often. The Vikings capitalized on that by holding the Bears to a .187 hitting mark, while hitting .255 for the match. A season-high 73 team digs for the Vikings also contributed to their defensive success.
 
For the first time this season, Portland State had four players with double-digit digs. SR DS/L Tasha Bojanic led the Vikings with a match-high 20 digs for her third 20-dig match of the season. JR DS Haley Glass added 16 digs over the four sets, along with one of the team's two aces.
 
SR S Erin Clark add 11 digs, along with a season-high 48 assists for her team-best seventh double-double of the season.
 
Offensively, the Vikings had three players with double-digit kills, led by SO OH Caitlin Bettenay's match-high 20 kills. It was the fifth time this season, and 16th time of her career, that she posted 20-or-more kills in a match. It also improved her kills per set mark to 4.02, which is second in the Big Sky Conference, just 0.02 behind Eastern Washington's Ashley Seiler.
 
SO OH Toni McDougald continued her hot play from the outside with a season-high 13 kills, while hitting .323 (13-3-31). She has tallied double-digit kills in three of the last four matches, hitting .343 over that stretch.
 
FR OH Parker Webb rounded out the Vikings' double-digit kill performances with 11 kills on the night. It was her third such performance of the season.
 
JR MB Katy Wilson came one kills shy of her fourth double-digit kill match of the year with nine on 15 swings. She tallied three digs and led the Vikings with four blocks on the night, including three solo blocks, which matched her previous career high set against Montana State in 2015. The Vikings tallied seven blocks with JR MB Mikaelyn Sych assisting on three and Clark on two.
 
Portland State jumped out to a 9-2 lead early in the opening frame, which force Northern Colorado to use its first timeout. After the Vikings extended their lead to 13-6 on back-to-back kills from Bettenay, the teams traded points to 18-13. From there, the Vikings rattled off five-straight points to go up 23-13 before taking the opening set 25-16.
 
The Vikings went up 6-2 early in the second before the Bears went on a 6-0 run to take a 9-7 lead. The Vikings pulled within three at 17-14 midway through but Northern Colorado even the match with a 25-18 win in the second.
 
Portland State come out of the intermission and quickly jumped out to a 7-3 lead in the third set. The teams traded points before a 4-0 run by the Vikings put them up 17-11. The teams traded points again to 23-15 before three-straight by the Bears made it 23-18. Webb tallied kills on two of the final three points to give the Vikings a 25-19 win in the third.
 
The fourth set played very similarly to the third. The Vikings took a commanding 11-3 lead early in the frame and then went on a run late in the set to take a 22-12 lead. They closed out the match with a 25-15 win in the fourth on a kill from Wilson.
 
Portland State's win Thursday sets up a matchup between a pair of 4-1 Big Sky teams when North Dakota comes to town Saturday night. The Fighting Hawks suffered their first conference loss Thursday night in five sets at Sacramento State. The Hornets lead the Big Sky at 5-0 with Portland State, North Dakota, and Idaho all at 4-1.