PORTLAND, Ore. — The hottest team in Viking Pavilion this March isn't a basketball team. No, it's the Portland State volleyball team, which won its fourth match out of its last five Friday with a 3-0 (25-17, 25-20, 25-13) sweep of Idaho State.
The Vikings (5-12, 4-11 Big Sky) are 4-1 now in the month of March, and recorded their first sweep of the season Friday against the Bengals (4-13, 2-13 Big Sky). An offseason that featured virtually no 6-on-6 practices hampered the Vikings early in the season, but they've shown their true form recently during their March run.
"I think it'd be incredible" Portland State head coach
Michael Seemann said when asked about the opportunity to finish with five wins out of their last six with a victory Saturday. "Incredibly frustrating because we're not going to the [conference] tournament but also incredible in that if this had been a normal cycle, we would have been a better team perhaps a month earlier. But I think it'd be awesome to catapult us into spring. It more clearly defines how we're going to go about spring and preparing for next fall."
Two things that plagued the Vikings early in the season became strengths for the Vikings Friday. Whereas earlier in the season the Vikings would let teams out of bad rotations with an error, the Vikings kept the Bengals (4-13, 2-13 Big Sky) pinned in bad spots Friday. Additionally, serving had been a sore spot for the Vikings earlier in the season, but the Vikings had 10 aces against the Bengals while Idaho State committed 14 service errors.
All three sets featured extended runs for the Vikings. A 12-0 run turned what had been a back-and-forth first set into a runaway, while an 11-3 run in the second turned a 12-7 deficit into an 18-15 lead that the Vikings would not relinquish. A 7-0 run at the start of the third set then essentially put the match away, as the Vikings went up 13-3.
"When we pinned them down tonight, we turned those into points as opposed to letting them out," Seemann said of his team's runs.
Better serving helped the Vikings bury the Bengals with those long runs Friday. Serving errors stopped the Bengals from going on any extended run of their own, while the Vikings poured things on from the service line once they got going.
Freshman
Gabby Hollins led the effort with five aces, three of which came in the Vikings' 12-0 run in the first set. Hollins had two pairs of back-to-back aces in the match, the first coming in the first-set run, while the second gave the Vikings a 21-10 lead in the third. Hollins' five aces marked the most by a Viking in a match since teammate
Parker Webb had five against Northern Arizona on Oct. 12, 2017, back when Webb was a freshman.
The Vikings have now either tied or out-aced their opponents in six of their past seven matches, and have recorded nine or more aces in three of their last four.
"We definitely have a good serving groove. We have confident servers back there, which makes a huge difference," Seemann said. "We also have more than just six confident servers so we can dig deep in there and get some good strikes from people off the bench, too."
The Viking defense provided another highlight Friday, as they held the Bengals to .050 hitting with 18 errors against only 23 kills. Five different Vikings recorded at least seven digs despite the match only lasting three sets. Sophomore libero
Ellie Snook led all players with 16 digs in the match, 10 of which came in the first set alone. Besides Snook,
Ally Wada (11), Hollins (8), Webb (7) and
Zoe McBride (7) also anchored the Viking defense.
Wada's 11 digs came along with 22 assists, giving the junior her 11th double-double of the season as well as her fourth straight.
"This is the second weekend in a row where Ally's really been a lot of our glue – getting us out of some weird situations," Seemann said of Wada. It doesn't always show up as a stat, but I think she's doing a good job of leading the team offensively."
McBride led the Viking hitters with 11 kills on .400 hitting to go with seven digs, two blocks and two aces. Webb followed her with six kills to go with seven digs and a match-high four blocks.
However, the Viking hitters didn't have to do much Friday, thanks to the team's serving and defense. The most kills the Vikings had in a set was 12 in the first set, but the Bengals didn't have more than nine in any set themselves.
More of the same Saturday, when the Vikings and Bengals face each other in a rematch at 1 p.m., would solidify the improvements the Vikings have made over the final month of the season. Not to mention, give the Vikings wins in five of their last six matches of the season.
Match Notes: The Vikings improved to 35-26 all-time against the Bengals following Friday's win…The Bengals had won four in a row against the Vikings before Friday's match…Snook passed Marija Vojnovic (2006-09) for eighth all-time in career digs during the Vikings' Big Sky era (1996-Pres.) with 963 now in her career.
