SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Down a set against the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks, the Vikings regrouped and took three-straight to survive and advance in the 2017 Big Sky Conference Championship Thursday night in Sacramento, Calif.
 
Northern Arizona (13-15 overall) found out that it's hard to beat a good team three times in a season. The Lumberjacks dominated the opening frame 25-13 after hitting .406 as a team with eight service aces. That would be the best that they would hit as Portland State (21-8) took the next two sets 25-16 and 25-13 before taking a highly-contested fourth set, 26-24, to complete the comeback.
 
"I'm super proud of this team and how we responded tonight," Head Coach Michael Seemann said following the win. "NAU is a good serving team and we didn't respond well with our serve-receive in that first set and they kept us off balance. We still hit .306 in that set so I knew if we settled down things would start to fall."
 
Not only did Portland State win to advance to the semifinals against either top-seeded Sacramento State or No. 8-seed Northern Colorado, it got the proverbial NAU monkey off its back. Coming into Thursday's match the Vikings had dropped nine-straight matches to the 'Jacks including being ousted in last year's Big Sky quarterfinals. In fact, it was the first win against NAU for any player on the PSU roster.
 
After allowing NAU to hit .406 in the opening frame, PSU ramped up its defensive intensity and held the Lumberjacks to a .106 hitting mark the rest of the match. Portland State hit .237 on the night and had two players post double-digit kills.
 
The sophomore outside hitting tandem of Caitlin Bettenay and Toni McDougald kept the NAU defense off-balance throughout the match. After tallying just one kill in the opening frame, Bettenay went on the tally five in the second, six in third, and four more in the fourth for a match-high 16 kills. She also added 14 digs for her 10th double-double of the year.
 
McDougald, who has played primarily in the front row for the Vikings this season, played all six rotations and came up with her best match of the year. She tallied five kills in each of the final two frames en route to a PSU career-high 15 kills. She also tallied a career-high 14 digs for her first double-double as a Viking.
 
"Toni answered the call tonight," Seemann added. "She was a stud. Everyone stepped up tonight and our depth definitely shined. Hadley (Heck) came on in the first set and gave us some good passes and then Jenna (Mullen) came in and gave us some big serves."
 
Portland State posted its 10th double-digit blocking match of the season with 10.0 blocks against Northern Arizona. JR MB Mikaelyn Sych led the way for the Vikings with seven blocks to go along with seven kills. Fellow JR MB Katy Wilson added four blocks, including a pair of solo blocks, and added nine kills, while hitting .533.
 
SR S Erin Clark tallied four digs, four kills, three aces, and two blocks to go along with her match-high 42 assists. SR L Tasha Bojanic racked up a match high 24 digs for the Vikings. She also moved into fourth all-time at Portland State in career digs, surpassing Leanne Peters (1990-93). She now has 1,582 career digs.
 
JR OH Jenna Mullen was the Vikings ace in the hole against NAU. She came in to serve over the final three sets and came up with a pair of huge service aces right when they needed a big lift.
 
The opening set was one that the Vikings would like to quickly forget and that is exactly what they did. Northern Arizona hit .406 in the frame and tallied eight aces led by Sydney Lema's four en route to a lopsided 25-13 win.
 
Portland State returned the favor in the second with a lopsided win of its own. The Vikings jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead. The Lumberjacks quickly cut into the lead and pulled within on at 9-8 but that would be the closest that they would get in the frame. The Vikings went on an 8-1 run to go up 17-9, which forced NAU to take a timeout. The 'Jacks cut the lead to five points at 19-14 but the Vikings extended it to win 25-16 on Mullen's first ace of the match.
 
Portland State built another five-point lead at 12-5 in the third set on an ace from Clark to force an NAU timeout. Back-to-back kills by Wilson increased the Vikings lead to 17-11. After trading points following another NAU timeout, the Vikings went on a 5-0 run to go up 23-12. After a kill by NAU's Kaylie Jorgenson, a kill from Bettenay and a block from Sych and Clark gave the Vikings the 25-13 win in the third to go up two sets to one.
 
Once again, the Vikings jumped out to a commanding 8-1 lead to start the fourth set. The Lumberjacks kept fighting and eventually tied it at 18-18 before taking their first lead of the frame at 19-18. The lead would not last as the Vikings rattled off four straight points, capped by an ace from FR OH Parker Webb.
 
NAU, playing for its season, came back to tie the fourth set at 23-23. The teams traded points to 24-24 before a kill from Bettenay put the Vikings up 25-24. When things are going your way, it seems like every ball falls. That's exactly what happed for Sych and the Vikings on the final play of the match. Just trying to get the ball over the net and with her back facing the net, Sych hit the ball deep and it hit just on the backline for the match-winner.
 
The win improves the Vikings' tournament record to 10-12 all-time and gives them their first tournament win since 2013.
 
Abby Akin led the Lumberjacks with 11 kills. Portland State held Kaylie Jorgenson, who had tallied 24 and 16 kills in the first to matches of the year, was held to just eight kills and an .039 hitting mark.
 
Portland State will face the winner of the final quarterfinal between top-seeded Sacramento State and No. 8 seed Northern Colorado Friday night at 7:05 p.m. PT in the second semifinal. No. 2 North Dakota and No. 3 Idaho will face off in Friday's first semifinal match.
                                                                                                                                                              
NOTES:

• Portland State snapped a nine-match losing streak to Northern Arizona.
• Portland State dropped the first set in a win for the third time this season.
• Portland State earned its first Big Sky Tournament win since 2013.
• SO OH Caitlin Bettenay recorded her 10th double-double of the year with 16 kills and 14 digs.
• SO OH Toni McDougald recorded her first double-double as a Vikings with a career-high 15 kills and 14 digs.
• SR L Tasha Bojanic moved into fourth all-time with 1,582 career digs, passing Leanne Peters (1990-93).