Box Score (PDF)

ST. LOUIS, Mo. — The Portland State volleyball team couldn't make it a clean weekend sweep at the Marcia E. Hamilton Classic, instead falling 3-1 (25-15, 25-21, 22-25, 25-21) to host Saint Louis Saturday night in the final match of the tournament.
 
The Vikings shouldn't lament the loss for too long, however, as they head home with a 2-1 record despite traveling more than 2,000 miles on the opening weekend of the regular season – the longest-ever non-conference road trip for the Vikings within the contiguous 48 states in 13 seasons under head coach Michael Seemann.
 
The Billikens (3-0) finished their own weekend sweep with their win over the Vikings (2-1), bookending the victory with a pair of .300 hitting performance in the first and fourth sets. The Billikens outhit the Vikings .389-to-.115 in the opening frame, putting the Vikings in a hole early.
 
The Viking defense rebounded to hold the Billikens to just .109 hitting in the second set, but the Saint Louis defense was even better, forcing the Vikings into 10 attack errors and a .000 hitting percentage.
 
Saint Louis started the third set with a 6-2 lead, but the Vikings bounced back to take their first lead of the set at 13-12. Freshman Sophia Tuliau subbed on for the first time this season in the set, and was a nice spark from the bench, finishing the set with three kills and two blocks.
 
Tuliau's third kill leveled the set again at 17-17, and a 6-1 run a little later gave the Vikings a commanding 24-19 lead. Freshman Jasmine Powell ended the set a few points later with a kill that made it 25-22.
 
The Vikings couldn't hold on to the momentum in the fourth set, as Saint Louis used a 5-1 run to take a commanding 17-10 lead. The Billikens were hitting .429 in the set at the 17-10 mark of the set with 11 kills on 21 attacks against only two errors.
 
The Billikens were still hitting .429 when they took a 20-13 lead, and they stretched that to a 23-14 advantage a few points later. The Vikings made it interesting with seven straight points to get back within two at 23-21, but a service error and an SLU kill following a timeout ended the match for the Billikens.
 
Freshman Ellie Snook led the Vikings with a match-high 20 digs, and was named to the all-tournament team along with teammate Parker Webb following the match. Webb led the Vikings with 12 kills to go with six digs and two blocks, as she was the Vikings' only player to go into double figures for kills.
 
Powell went into double figures for digs for the third straight match with 13 digs against the Billikens. Powell recorded 13, 15 and 13 digs over the Vikings' three matches at the tournament, and ended her first weekend of collegiate volleyball averaging 3.73 digs per set.
 
Freshman setter Caroline Dragani nearly finished with her first collegiate double-double, recording nine digs to go with 27 assists in the match.
 
Redshirt sophomore middle blocker Jordan White had her most efficient match to date in the attack, recording six kills on 10 swings while committing only two errors. White also led the Vikings with six blocks in the match, and finished the weekend averaging a team-high 1.55 blocks per set.
 
The Vikings play closer to home next weekend, as they head to the La Quinta Inn & Suites by Wyndham Invitational, Sept. 6-7, hosted by Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.
 
Match Notes: The Vikings fall to 0-1 all time against Billikens as Saturday's match was the teams' first-ever meeting…The Vikings fall to 2-1 all time against opponents from the Atlantic 10 Conference.