PORTLAND, Ore. — An emotional Senior Day ceremony before the match only fueled a determined Portland State volleyball team that secured itself some momentum ahead of next week's Big Sky tournament with a 3-0 sweep (25-15, 25-16, 25-19) of Montana.
 
The emotions of the pre-match ceremony Saturday night at Viking Pavilion could have de-focused some teams. But the Vikings (18-9, 12-4 Big Sky) instead played inspired volleyball in order to send out their five seniors with a win to close the regular season.
 
"We played hard for our seniors tonight, and they were able to channel their emotions towards competing in the match," Portland State head coach Michael Seemann said afterwards.
 
Junior Makayla Lewis still led the way with 11 kills on .281 hitting in the match, but every senior produced during the win. All four senior hitters finished with at least six kills, while setter Ally Wada posted a double-double with 13 assists and 12 digs.
 
Zoe McBride led the seniors with nine kills, six of which came in the first set when she hit .545. Maddy Reeb also had three of her six kills in the opening set, and led the Vikings with a .429 hitting percentage in the match. Parker Webb posted seven kills on .278 hitting in the match, while Genevieve Florig had six kills on .417 hitting.
 
McBride also helped lead a strong serving match for the Vikings while tying a season high with four aces. Lewis also had three aces in the match, while Wada and Ellie Snook added two each. All told, the Vikings finished with 13 aces in the match, tying a season high despite playing only three sets against the Grizzlies (11-15, 6-10 Big Sky).
 
"Our tough serving tonight gave us confidence, and I thought that we turned digs into quality swings," Seemann said afterwards.
 
The serving certainly helped the Viking offense, as the team hit .291 for their best hitting percentage in a match since they hit .398 against Idaho on Sept. 30. No Viking hit worse than .222, while both Reeb (.429) and Florig (.417) hit above .400.
 
Defense also helped fuel the Vikings' efficient offense Saturday. The Vikings set a three-set career high with 62 digs, eight more than they've had in any other three-set match this season.
 
Ellie Snook led the way, as she usually does, finishing with a match-high 18 digs. Half of Snook's 18 digs came in the second set when she helped the Viking defense hold Montana to only eight kills on .077 hitting, both of which were the Grizzlies' lowest numbers in any set of the match. 
 
Defense sparked a 9-2 run in the middle of the second set that put the Vikings in full control, up 19-9.
 
Offense helped the Vikings separate themselves in the first set, as they hit .429 with 17 kills in the frame. Three of McBride's six kills in the first set came as part of a 10-3 run for the Vikings to close the set. Reeb also had a kill on set point, giving her three in the frame on only four swings.
 
The third set was tighter, as the Vikings still only led by one at 20-19. The Vikings scored the final five points to close out the match, however, with two of those five points coming on aces from McBride. 
 
McBride joined Snook in double figures for digs, as she added 11 to her nine kills – the fourth time in the Vikings' past seven matches that she's been either one kill or one dig away from a double-double.
 
Wada did get a double-double Saturday with her 13 assists and 12 digs. Wada now has 14 double-doubles this season, tied for the eighth-best single-season total since 2005, the first year double-double records were tracked in the program's archives.
 
Lewis finished a dig away from her fifth straight double-double, as she added nine digs to her 11 kills.
 
McBride and Lewis also both had two blocks in the match, ranking them tied for second on the team behind Florig and Ashleigh Barto, who each had three.
 
The Vikings already know their first opponent at next week's Big Sky tournament. The Vikings earned the third seed with their 12-4 record in Big Sky play, pitting them against sixth-seeded Sacramento State at 9 a.m. PT / 10 a.m. MT Thursday, Nov. 18.
 
The Hornets beat the Vikings in both matches during the regular season, but the Vikings will be a confident bunch heading to Ogden, Utah, after their performance Saturday.
 
Match Notes: The Vikings improved to 55-18 all-time against Montana with Saturday's win…The 12-4 record in Big Sky play represents the Vikings' best conference record since the 2013 team went 17-3…Webb moved into fifth place in career kills during the program's Division I era (1996-pres.) during the match, passing Whitney Phillips, who had 1,072 career kills from 2009-10…Snook now trails Kaeli Patton's single-season record for aces by only two, as she has 44 after Saturday.