PORTLAND, Ore. — Tough girls wear pink.
 
That was true of the Portland State volleyball team Thursday night, as the Vikings snapped a four-match losing streak with a critical 3-1 (25-23, 25-19, 19-25, 25-13) win over Montana State on Block Cancer/Pink Night at Viking Pavilion.
 
The win, which also closed the first half of Big Sky play for the Vikings, pinched the conference standings even closer than they already were, boosting the Vikings' hopes of earning a Big Sky tournament spot at the end of the season. Seven teams were within two games of each other coming into Thursday night, with Montana State on top of that group and Portland State on the bottom.
 
Thursday's result put both teams closer to the middle, leaving the Vikings (8-12, 4-5 Big Sky) – who play five of their final nine conference matches at home – with an achievable path to the conference tournament.
 
"Being so close at Idaho State and then not performing how we wanted to against Sacramento State or Northern Colorado, it felt like were in a little bit of a slide and so this win definitely flipped that around. We got contributions from a deeper group of people, too, which made this feel very much like a complete team win," head coach Michael Seemann said afterwards.
 
The balanced attack helped the Vikings come up bigger in the crucial moments against the Bobcats (9-9, 5-4 Big Sky). The Bobcats led 23-21 late in the first set, only to see the Vikings win four straight points to steal the set, 25-23. Redshirt sophomore Parker Webb aced the Bobcats' Allyssa Rizzo – the top-ranked libero in the conference – on back-to-back serves to close it out.
 
Additionally, the Bobcats won the third set with relative ease, but the Vikings responded with their best set of the match to close out the win in the fourth. The Vikings recorded 18 kills on .304 hitting in the fourth, completely flipping the script from the third set, when the Bobcats recorded 18 kills on .357 hitting.
 
"One of our goals was for us to control what we could, which was our emotions and our effort and our attitude. I thought we did a good job of staying steady throughout the whole match," Seemann said. "There could have been times where we let the momentum swing the other way. We just stayed steady and dug ourselves out of some of those situations, which is a tribute to our players and how they approached each point."
 
Several of the statistical categories that had gone against the Vikings in their four-match skid returned to the Vikings' favor Thursday night. The Vikings held the Bobcats to .143 hitting, the lowest average by a Viking opponent since Portland State held Eastern Washington to .137 hitting on Sept. 27.
 
Four different Vikings recorded at least 15 digs for the first time this season, with Webb and freshman setter Caroline Dragani each setting career highs with 18 and 16 digs, respectively. Senior outside hitter Toni McDougald and freshman libero Ellie Snook also each set career highs for four-set matches with 19 and 24 digs, respectively. Nine of McDougald's 19 digs came in the fourth set alone, while 22 of Snook's 24 digs came in the final three sets of the match. 
 
The Vikings also saw their kill production rise Thursday, with their 54 kills against the Bobcats marking a new season high for the team in a four-set match. McDougald led the Vikings with 17 kills as she was steady throughout the match, never recording less than four kills in any set against the Bobcats. Webb, meanwhile, added 15 kills to her 18 digs, giving her her fifth double-double in the Vikings' past seven matches.
 
McDougald and Webb each had five kills in the first set for the Vikings, including one each during a 3-0 Viking run that gave the Vikings a 17-13 lead. The Bobcats responded with 10 of the next 14 points to take a 23-21 lead, but the Vikings won the final four points to close out the set, the last three coming on a block between McDougald and redshirt sophomore Jordan White and back-to-back aces from Webb.
 
Defense led the way for the Vikings in the second set, as they held the Bobcats to only six kills in the set while forcing them into eight attack errors. It was still only 14-13 in the middle of the set, however, when a 6-0 PSU run put the Vikings in firm control. McDougald contributed three of the six points in the run between a kill, solo block and a block assist with freshman Julia Haynie.
 
The Bobcats got out in front of the Vikings early in the third set and stayed there to push the match to a fourth. The Vikings returned the favor in the fourth set, with a 5-0 run putting the Vikings in firm control, leading 14-6. Junior Maddy Reeb recorded three kills in the run, part of seven kills in the match for Reeb which tied her season high.
 
The Vikings maintained at least a six-point lead the rest of the way, before Webb closed out the match with her sixth kill of the fourth set.
 
The Vikings will now look to keep things rolling Saturday, when they head to Missoula, Mont., for a road match against the Montana Grizzlies. First serve between the Vikings and Grizzlies is scheduled for 7 p.m. (MT).
 
Match Notes: The Vikings improved to 44-22-1 all time against Montana State with Thursday's win…The Vikings improved to 24-20 in the Big Sky series between them and Montana State…The Vikings raised over $600 for the American Cancer Society as part of a PledgeIt campaign that donated a certain amount of money for every block the Vikings recorded in Thursday's match (7)… White finished third on the team with eight kills against the Bobcats, her most kills in a four-set match this season.