PORTLAND, Ore. — Portland State volleyball fans who went 14 months without seeing the Vikings play certainly got their fill of it this weekend. A day after coming back from a 2-1 deficit to beat Idaho in five sets, the Vikings nearly pulled off an even bigger comeback Monday, coming back from two sets down to force a second-straight fifth set.
 
The Vikings' resilience continued in the final frame as they fought off three match points, but the Vandals regrouped enough to pull it out in the end, beating the Vikings 3-2 (25-18, 25-12, 19-25, 19-25, 17-15).
 
"I appreciated the fact that we showed some resilience after the second set," Portland State head coach Michael Seemann said after the match. "We put a bunch of people in there who haven't played together and developed that chemistry. There was a lot of moving pieces and so I think that made it difficult for the team to gel like they had an opportunity to yesterday.
 
"We talk about our depth, and we were able to dig into that and give people a lot of opportunities to see action, which I think is going to pay off for us moving into league play now."
 
Fans could see the Vikings' depth during their comeback, as Seemann and his staff began plugging people in after going down two sets to none.
 
The Vikings found little rhythm in the second set – recording just six kills against five attack errors – but bounced back with their best defensive set of the match in the third. The Vikings held the Vandals (1-1) to negative-.128 hitting in the set, while allowing only four kills and forcing them into nine errors. Additionally, three of the Vikings' six blocks in the match came in the third set alone, with Julia Haynie and Parker Webb each recording two assists each.
 
The Vikings followed with their best offensive set in the fourth, hitting .262 behind 16 kills on 42 swings and five errors. Sophomore Jasmine Powell heated up in the fourth set, recording five kills on nine swings and no errors. Webb also had four kills in the set, with two of those coming in the Vikings' last three points of the frame.
 
The Viking offense struggled again in the fifth set, however, as the Vandals outhit them .176-to-.026 with only three attack errors against eight for the Vikings. Still, neither team led by more than two points throughout the set, with the only difference coming in a 4-1 Idaho run that turned an 11-10 Viking lead into a 14-12 advantage for the Vandals. The Vikings fought off three match points after that – the last two of which freshman Gabby Hollins erased with kills – but the Vandals converted on their fourth to close out the set, 17-15, and the match.
 
Monday's match also served as a reminder for Viking fans that this team hasn't practiced together, 6-on-6, for more than a week since the beginning of the pandemic in March. The surest sign of that came in the Vikings' hitting numbers, as the team hit .050 or less in all but the fourth set Monday.  
 
"You look at the whole last month, we probably had a total of maybe four or five days where we had 6-on-6 so this is really, for all of us, the first time we've seen a team across the net. Everything else has been 1-vs-6 or 2-vs-6. That maybe showed up a little bit this weekend," Seemann said of his team.
 
"We look forward to actually having 6-on-6 and being able to give feedback and test things and test our decision making. We haven't been there at all. It's kind of been a bunch of private lessons until now. I think we're just looking forward to getting back into the gym and really developing some continuity and some chemistry with each other."
 
Once the chemistry comes, the Vikings showed they have plenty of options at their disposal this weekend. Monday's match featured five different players recording over 10 digs for the Vikings, while four different players finishing with nine kills or more.
 
Hollins led the Vikings offensively for the second straight match, totaling 12 kills to go with 11 digs. That marked the second straight double-double to open Hollins' collegiate career after she had a freshman-record 23 kills and 10 digs Sunday. Powell finished with her own double-double, recording 11 kills and 14 digs. Haynie matched Powell with 11 kills of her own, nearly doubling her previous career high of six in the process. Haynie also led the Vikings with four blocks Monday.
 
Webb finished a kill away from a double-double with nine kills and 13 digs in her first action of the season.
 
Junior transfer Ally Wada also saw her first action in a Viking uniform, splitting time at setter with senior Maddy Reeb initially in the second and third sets before starting the fourth and fifth. Wada finished with her first double-double as a Viking, recording 26 assists to go with 10 digs.
 
Sophomore libero Ellie Snook, meanwhile, played her best volleyball in the fifth set once again, recording nine digs in the frame after totaling 10 fifth-set digs Sunday. Snook finished with 29 digs overall, 23 of which came after the Vikings fell behind 2-0.
 
The Vikings remain home for their next matches, as they host Northern Arizona for their first Big Sky weekend, Jan. 30-31. First serve for both matches will be at 1 p.m. (PT).
 
Match Notes: The Vikings fell to 17-9 all time against the Vandals after Monday's loss…Monday's match counted as a non-conference match between the Vikings and Vandals, and will not count towards either team's Big Sky record.