PORTLAND – Portland State dropped its first league match of the season in three sets to the Sacramento State Hornets Saturday night on the campus of Concordia University in North Portland.
 
The Hornets (13-7 overall, 4-0 Big Sky Conference) took the match by scores of 25-22, 25-20, and 25-19. Portland State fell to 12-4 overall and 3-1 in league play. The Vikings fall one match behind both Sacramento State and North Dakota (4-0) in the overall standings and the Hornets in the Big Sky South.
 
The match played much closer than the score indicated. Each set came down to a run or two that Sacramento State went on that Portland State was unable to counter.
 
SO OH Caitlin Bettenay led all players with a match-high 13 kills. SO OH Toni McDougald and FR OH Parker Webb each added eight kills in the match. SR S Erin Clark came one dig shy of her seventh double-double with 33 assists and nine digs.
 
Portland State's defense played solidly throughout the match with SR L Tasha Bojanic posting one of the best performances of her career. She tallied a match-high 23 digs, the most by the Viking this season in a three-set match. She got virtually every ball that came her way in the first set, tallying 10 digs in the opening frame. She added six in the second set and seven in the third.
 
Bojanic is on a tremendous run to start Big Sky play. Over the last four matches, she has tallied 77 digs for 6.21 digs per set.
 
The first set was a battle from the very first point. Neither team took more than a two-point lead before the Hornets rattled off five-straight points to take an 18-14 lead. Portland State stormed back with five-straight points to retake the lead at 19-18 on a kill from Bettenay, which forced a Sacramento State timeout.
 
Bettenay added another kill after the timeout but the Hornets countered with four of the next five points to take a 22-21 lead, which forced PSU's final of the set.
 
A service error by the Hornets out of the timeout tied the set again at 22-22. A kill by the Hornets and a Vikings attacking error gave Sacramento State set point at 24-22. An attacking error by PSU, after a controversial no-call on a potential Hornets lift, gave Sacramento State the 25-22 win in the first.
 
Portland State led 7-5 early in the second set before the Hornets went on a 5-0 run to go up 10-7. Portland State took three of the next four points to pull within one at 11-10. After back-to-back points by Sacramento State, the Vikings rattled off three-straight points to tie it at 14-14.
 
The teams started trading points to 18-18 before another 3-0 run by the Hornets, which included a pair of kills off PSU blocks, forced a Portland State timeout. The Vikings came out of the timeout with back-to-back errors, one attacking and one setting, to put SAC up 23-19.
 
The Vikings ended the Hornets 5-0 run with a kill from McDougald but Sacramento State closed out the set with two of the final three points to win it 25-20.
 
Sacramento State came out of the intermission and took a 4-1 lead after back-to-back aces. The Vikings pulled within two points twice at 7-5 and 9-7 before the Hornets rattled off three-straight points to go up 12-7, which forced a Portland State timeout.
 
After a pair of points by the Hornets extended their lead to 14-7. The Vikings scored three-straight to make it 14-10 but the Hornets went on another run, 4-0, to go up 18-10. The Vikings made a late run at it but the Hornets closed out the match with a 25-19 win in the third.
 
Saturday's match began a stretch of five consecutive home matches for the Vikings. Portland State hosts Northern Colorado on Thursday, Oct. 5 at 8 p.m. PT before hosting North Dakota on Saturday, Oct. 7 at 7 p.m.