GREELEY, Colo. — Facing the league-leaders two days after an emotional win on Senior Night, the Portland State volleyball team wasn't able to summon the same magic it had against Sacramento State, losing 3-0 (25-19, 25-11, 25-20) to Northern Colorado Thursday.
 
The Vikings (10-19, 6-12 Big Sky) were even with the Bears (22-7, 16-1 Big Sky) in the first set, but then gave up big leads early in the second and third sets. Neither team led by more than a point through the middle of the first set, until UNC won the final six points of the set to claim momentum.
 
"We were steady in the first set, point to point, but we didn't get any stops," head coach Michael Seemann said afterwards. "Our serve receive then broke down in the second and third sets, leading to too many easy points for them."
 
The Bears recorded eight service aces in the second set alone, while two more early in the third set helped the Bears run out to an 8-2 lead.
 
Back-to-back kills from senior Toni McDougald sparked a 4-0 run that got the Vikings back within two at 9-7, but the Bears responded with six straight points to take back control of the match. A 5-1 run a little later gave the Bears a 21-12 lead in the third, and the Bears would close out the match with ease from there.
 
The Bears outhit the Vikings .267-to.125 Thursday, and hit over .300 in each of the first two sets.
 
Individually, Maddy Reeb led the Vikings with eight kills to go with six digs. Freshman Jasmine Powell also had six kills and seven digs, while McDougald finished with five kills for the Vikings.
 
Freshman setter Caroline Dragani matched Reeb with six digs to go with a team-high 16 assists.
 
Thursday night's match closes the regular season for the Vikings, but the Vikings remain alive in the hunt for a Big Sky tournament berth. The Vikings lead Montana by a match for the final playoff spot going into the final day of the regular season Saturday. Montana holds the tiebreaker over the Vikings, however, meaning they would advance to the tournament over the Vikings if they beat Idaho State Saturday. If the Bengals win, then the Vikings would advance to the tournament as the No. 8 seed.
 
Idaho State hosts the Grizzlies at 6 p.m. (PT) / 7 p.m. (MT) Saturday. The Bengals beat the Grizzlies in their first match against each other this season, winning in three sets on the road on Oct. 17.
 
Match Notes: The Vikings fell to 20-16 all time against the Bears with Thursday's loss…The Vikings fell to 13-10 in the Big Sky series between them and the Bears after Thursday…Freshman libero Ellie Snook finished the regular season with an average of 5.47 digs per set which would set a new single-season school record if Thursday's match proves to be the Vikings' last…Snook finished with 607 digs in the regular season, second only to Kasimira Clark's school-record 635 digs in 2012.