PORTLAND, Ore. — It should no longer be a surprise when the Portland State volleyball team comes back to win after dropping the opening set, as the Vikings did for a fifth time this season Saturday. But for the Vikings to do it against Northern Arizona – a team that came into the match tied with the Vikings at 4-1 in Big Sky play, and one that's historically given the Vikings trouble – should convert any remaining doubters into believers.
The Vikings (11-6, 5-1 Big Sky) looked out of sorts in the first set against the Lumberjacks (6-9, 4-2 Big Sky), recording 11 attack errors while being outhit .226-to-.000. But the Vikings know how to turn a match around, which they did better than at any point this season while beating the Lumberjacks, 3-1 (18-25, 25-20, 25-21, 25-19) at Viking Pavilion. The Vikings hit a combined .348 over the final three sets, and had fewer combined errors in the second, third and fourth sets (10), than they had in the first set alone (11).
"The team is rarely fazed. I think they believe that they can do it," Portland State head coach
Michael Seemann said of his team's competitive spirit. "A lot of that, too, is being able to make some subs and take some pressure off people, give them some feedback, let them watch, let them get a better idea, and put them back in. That's also a piece to it. Our depth is allowing us to do that, which lets us settle down sometimes rather than being all pressure, all the time."
As a sign of the team's depth, five different Vikings finished with at least eight kills, the first time that's happened all season.
Makayla Lewis and
Parker Webb led the way, just as they have all season. Lewis bounced back after an uncharacteristically quiet match Thursday to lead the Vikings with 15 kills on .273 hitting. Lewis added 12 digs to her 15 kills, giving the junior her sixth double-double of the season. Webb, meanwhile, finished with 13 kills on .440 hitting, while adding three blocks.
Maddy Reeb and
Gabby Hollins followed with eight kills each from the outside, with Hollins also chipping in 11 digs. Hollins did all of her work in the last three sets, as she provided a spark off the bench for the Vikings after the opening set.
Genevieve Florig might challenge Hollins for the biggest breakout performance Saturday, however. The graduate transfer put together her most productive offensive match of the season, finishing with a season-high 10 kills on .350 hitting to go with three blocks (1s, 2a). Fellow middle blockers
Ashleigh Barto and
Sydney Rabe also contributed four kills between them, as the Vikings got strong production out of the middle.
"We've been talking about getting [the middles] going. We knew, looking at NAU, they weren't going to help on our middles in terms of assisting on the blocks. So we knew we were going to be one-on-one in there. It was a question of, can we connect with our setters? And obviously tonight, our setters did a great job of feeding them at good times," Seemann said of the team's play in the middle.
Florig seemed to get the Vikings going late in the first set, as she recorded two kills and a block as part of a 6-1 run late in the set. It was too little, too late for the Vikings in the first, but it led into a strong turnaround set for the Vikings in the second. The Vikings totaled 17 kills on .500 hitting in the second set, a complete, 180-degree turn from the first set, when they hit .000 with 11 attack errors against 11 kills.
Hollins emerged for the Vikings in the second set, recording five kills on .500 hitting. Lewis was also at her best in the second set, recording five kills on only six swings for a ridiculous .833 hitting percentage. Hollins had three kills as part of an extended, 9-3 run in the middle of the set, the last of which put the Vikings up 19-15. Lewis had two kills of her own in the run, and added another on set point as the Vikings leveled the match at a set apiece.
The Vikings hit .264 with 18 kills in the third set, but it was the defense that led the way in what proved to be the crucial set of the match. Four different Vikings totaled at least five digs in the set between
Ellie Snook, Lewis,
Ally Wada and Hollins. Snook recorded 11 of her match-high 25 digs in the third set alone, helping the Viking defense hold NAU to only .151 hitting in the frame.
Still, the Vikings had to dig themselves out of a hole early in the third, as a 9-1 NAU run gave them the early lead. The Lumberjacks still led 12-6, when the Vikings scored six of the next eight points to get back within two at 14-12. Florig led the way with three kills in the run, while Webb chipped in two of her own.
The Lumberjacks pushed their lead back out to four at 18-14, but the Vikings responded with five of the next six points to tie the set again at 19-all. The Vikings still didn't take the lead back until a challenge reversed what had been called an error into a kill for Webb that made it 22-21 Vikings. Hollins followed with a kill of her own, while Snook aced the Lumberjacks on her next serve to get the Vikings to set point. Barto and Webb closed it out with a block after that, putting the Vikings up 2-1 in the match.
"We were spotting them a point almost every rotation in serve receive, but at the end of that, we started to flip the table. We got out on some of our first-swing kills, and then we started pinning them on every first ball, too," Seemann said of the team's comeback in the third set. "That's a tribute to our serving, because that's a good serving team [NAU]. I thought we did a really good job of taking care of their serves because they can serve the heck out of it."
The run that ended the third set bled into the fourth, as the Vikings opened up a 15-5 lead at the start of the set. The Lumberjacks made it interesting with a 7-0 run that got them back within three, but the Vikings responded with a 3-0 run of their own that put them back on track. Webb had a kill and a block in the run, and added another kill that put the Vikings up 21-15. Webb finished with four kills on .667 hitting in the fourth set to lead the Vikings in their close-out set.
Strong serving helped drive the Vikings home, as they recorded three of their nine aces in the fourth set. Barto led the Vikings with three aces in the match, while Snook and Hollins added two each.
Saturday's win marks the fifth in a row for the Vikings, who now sit tied with Northern Colorado for second in the Big Sky standings, one match behind league-leader Weber State at 6-0. Additionally, Saturday marked just the third win for the Vikings in their past 17 meetings with the Lumberjacks, who are one of the few Big Sky teams with a winning record against Portland State.
The Vikings hit the road for their next three matches, as they play at Montana (Oct. 14), Montana State (Oct. 16) and Sacramento State (Oct. 19) before returning home for six of their final seven matches this season.
Match Notes: The Vikings improved to 22-31 all-time against the Lumberjacks after Saturday's win…Wada led the Vikings with 26 assists, while freshman
Teniyah Leuluai finished with 22…Wada added 12 digs to her 26 assists, giving Wada the eighth double-double of her season and 19th of her Portland State career…Webb passed Megan Ellis (2009-12) for sixth all-time in kills during the Vikings' Division I era.
