Box Score (PDF)

ST. LOUIS, Mo. — In her first official match back from a knee injury that kept her out for all but the first three weeks of last season, Parker Webb showed the Portland State volleyball team how much it missed her in 2018. Webb finished with a match-high 17 kills while hitting .533 as the Vikings swept Southern Illinois, 25-19, 25-19, 25-20, in their season opener Friday at the Marcia E. Hamilton Classic, hosted by Saint Louis University.
 
Webb's 17 kills were a new career high for the Viking redshirt sophomore, while her .533 hitting percentage marked her second highest mark ever in a match in which she recorded at least 12 kills. Additionally, Webb's 17 kills marked the most by a Viking in a three-set match since Pati Anae had 18 against Southern Utah on Oct. 27, 2016.
 
As much as Webb's performance was a refreshing look for her following her injury last season, Friday's season-opening win was also an encouraging look at some of the Vikings' newcomers. The Vikings will lean heavily on their newcomers this season, as they take up eight spots on the Vikings' 12-player roster this season, and seven of those eight newcomers enter as freshmen.
 
One of those freshmen, Caroline Dragani, got the start at setter for the Vikings (1-0), and shined in her Viking debut. Dragani finished with 39 assists in the match, the most by a Viking setter in a three-set match since Erin Clark had a pair of three-set matches with 51 and 41 assists during the Vikings' 2017 season. That was Clark's senior season at Portland State, however, while Friday's match came in Dragani's collegiate debut. By comparison, Clark had 29 assists in a 3-0 loss to fourth-ranked Washington in her collegiate debut back in 2014. Additionally, PSU hall-of-famer and former Big Sky MVP Garyn Schlatter only had 37 assists in a 3-1 win over Seattle while making her Viking debut back in 2010.
 
Dragani's 39 assists helped lead the Vikings to an efficient attack, as the team hit .345 in the match with 43 kills on 113 attacks against only seven errors. It's been a while since the Vikings hit that well in a match, as they never hit better than .300 in a match last season, and only had three matches where they hit better than .345 in 2017.
 
Freshman Jasmine Powell was one of the beneficiaries of the efficient attack as she was a kill away from a double-double with nine kills and 13 digs. Powell only committed two errors in the match, and helped the Vikings get out to a hot start while tying senior Toni McDougald with a team-high five kills on only eight swings in the first set.
 
The Vikings scored five straight points on Powell's serve near the start of the match, giving them an early 8-3 lead over the Salukis (0-1). Powell started the run with a kill and a service ace back-to-back, while McDougald sandwiched two kills around another from Jordan White.
 
The Salukis tightened the set with a 3-0 run that made it 13-10, but the Vikings responded with a 7-1 run to take a 20-11 lead, and then stretched that to a 24-13 advantage a little later. Both Powell and McDougald had five kills each in the Vikings' first 19 points of the set, while neither committed an error in the first set.
 
The Vikings' attack was at its best in the first set of the match, as they hit .372 with 19 kills on 43 attacks while committing only three errors in the set. Powell, McDougald and Webb combined for 14 of the Vikings' 19 kills in the set, while Dragani had 17 of her match-high 39 assists in the set.
 
The Vikings again took an early advantage in the second set, scoring six straight points to stretch a 7-5 lead into a 13-5 advantage. The Salukis stuck with the Vikings in the second set more than they did in the first, but the Vikings maintained at least a three-point lead the rest of the way. Freshman Ellie Snook ended the set at 25-19 with back-to-back service aces, two of a match-high four aces for the Vikings' freshman libero.
 
Webb recorded her best set in the second, as she accounted for exactly half of the Vikings' 14 kills in the set, finishing with seven kills against no errors.
 
The Salukis played their best set in the third, as they were hitting .346 with 13 kills on 26 attacks while taking a 17-14 lead midway through the set. The Salukis still led the Vikings by three at 20-17, when the Vikings rattled off eight straight points to close out the match. Webb had two kills and a solo block in the Vikings' 8-0 run to finish the match, while Snook recorded another two aces. Snook ended the set and the match with her fourth ace of the day, just as she had done in the second set.
 
Snook got the start at libero for the Vikings, and finished with a match-high 16 digs, 10 of which came in the first set alone.
 
McDougald joined Webb in double figures with 11 kills in the match, and was similarly efficient while committing only one error in the match. McDougald finished with a .294 hitting percentage against the Salukis, better than she had in all but two matches last season.
 
White and Haynie played the whole for the Vikings at middle blocker, and finished with six and three kills, respectively.
 
The Vikings continue with two matches at the Marcia E. Hamilton Classic Saturday. The Vikings open the day against Middle Tennessee at 10 a.m. (CT) Saturday, and then return to the court for the final match of the day at 7 p.m. (CT), when they'll face host Saint Louis.
 
Match Notes: The Vikings improved to 2-0 all time against the Salukis, with their only other win coming back in 1982…The Vikings improved to 6-4 all time against teams from the Missouri Valley Conference…The Vikings improved to 9-4 in season openers under head coach Michael Seemann…The Vikings haven't lost a season opener since 2015, when they lost 3-0 to Boise State…The 2,000-mile trek to St. Louis, Mo., for the Marcia E. Hamilton Classic is the longest non-conference trip within the contiguous 48 states for the Vikings in 13 seasons under Seemann.