BOX SCORE (stats unofficial in an exhibition) - PDF | HTML

PORTLAND, Ore. — Four-and-a-half months after the Viking Pavilion opened in April, the new building hosted its first Portland State athletic event Monday as the Viking volleyball team beat Central Washington 3-1 (25-23, 25-20, 15-25, 25-22) in an exhibition match.
 
The match offered the Vikings their first look at the building in a competition setting, as well as their first look at each other against an opposing team. Central Washington, which advanced to the NCAA Division II West Regional last season, proved a good challenge for the Vikings in that regard, as they pushed the Vikings in every set and forced the Vikings to snap out of funk following the break.
 
The Vikings won the first two sets 25-23 and 25-20 to go up 2-0 on the Wildcats, but the Wildcats shot out to an 11-1 lead at the start of the third. The Wildcats stretched their lead to 17-5 before closing out the third set, 25-15, and then ran out to a 19-10 lead in the fourth set. The Vikings found their form again after that, though – winning 15 of the final 18 points of the match to close it out.
 
"I thought we scrapped well, which has never been something that's necessarily an identity of ours," Portland State head coach Michael Seemann said of his team after the match. "I thought we really did a good job of keeping plays alive and covering our hitters, which I was really pleased with. We used a lot of offensive pieces that we didn't use last year at all. While we may not have scored on a lot of them or hit some of those out, the fact that we went there and set those players in those situations is a step in the right direction. If we can just get a little bit better at blocking, then we're not in those rallies as long.
 
"With the exhibition, ultimately we wanted to answer a few questions about ourselves and also just give a core group the chance to establish a bit of a rhythm and build some trust."
 
The Vikings stuck with the same starting lineup for all four sets of the match, and no player outside of the starting lineup played in more than one set. The Vikings went with youth in some key areas, too, as sophomore Maddy Reeb and freshman Mackenzie Sullivan played the whole match at setter and libero, respectively.
 
"We certainly could have done more subbing and seen more combos, but we felt like we wanted to give this team some confidence. Now we know more about that core group of players who have, at least at this point, earned that spot," Seemann said.
 
Reeb took advantage of her start at setter, finishing with a double-double of 37 assists and 21 digs. The exhibition means the double-double won't count but no Viking setter had finished with more than 30 assists and 20 digs since former Big Sky MVP Garyn Schlatter finished with 41 assists and 25 digs in a five-set match against Northern Colorado on Nov. 10, 2012.
 
Senior Jenna Mullen and junior Toni McDougald also had double-doubles while playing on the outside for the Vikings. Mullen finished with a team-high 16 kills to go along with 10 digs, while McDougald finished with 12 kills and 10 digs. Mullen had seven kills on 11 attacks in the fourth set alone, and only had four errors out of 42 total attacks overall in the match.
 
Senior middle blocker Katy Wilson finished with seven kills on 14 attacks and only one error, while redshirt junior Whitney Turner finished with a team-high six block assists. Sullivan led all Vikings with 24 digs in the match.
 
McDougald led early for the Vikings, as she had a team-high five kills in the first set alone. The Vikings took control in the middle of the set, as a 5-1 run turned an 11-10 PSU lead into a 16-11 lead, prompting the Wildcats to use the first of their timeouts. The Vikings stretched their lead to 23-17 but a 5-0 CWU run made it interesting before McDougald ended it with a tip that the Wildcats couldn't return.
 
The teams were tied 16-16 in the second set before a 6-1 PSU run made it 22-17. Turner punctuated the run with her fourth block assist in the second set alone.
 
The Vikings could not find the same rhythm at all in the third set, however, and fell behind at the start of the fourth set, as well. The Wildcats hit .462 in the third set – with 15 kills against only three errors – after the Vikings held them to .130 and .039 in the first two sets, respectively.
 
Seemann attributed some of the Vikings' lapses to replacing key cogs in their lineup from last season. Departed seniors Erin Clark and Tasha Bojanic, who were named to the All-Big Sky first team after starting at setter and libero, respectively, for the Vikings, would have usually steadied the Vikings in those types of situations last season.
 
"When things start to go south, it picks up momentum as it rolls down the hill. And that's not necessarily an easy thing to identify, what you say when we keep hitting out. Ultimately, we need to reduce errors and be more efficient," Seemann said.
 
The Vikings found the answers in the fourth set in the end, and held the Wildcats to only .119 hitting in the set while shutting the door on the match.
 
The Vikings host their first counting match of the season Friday at the Viking Pavilion, as they play Long Beach State at 7 p.m. as part of the Viking Summer Spike tournament. Long Beach State will play Boise State in a neutral-site match at the Viking Pavilion at 12 p.m. earlier in the day Friday.