PORTLAND, Ore. — It's nice to see you again, lady victory. The Portland State volleyball team returned to the win column Sunday, coming back to win a crucial third set in a 3-1 (25-22, 26-28, 25-22, 25-21) victory over Montana at Viking Pavilion.
 
"For everyone, while we have been experiencing a lot of growth in our recent losses, just to get that feeling of winning again is huge for us. And learning how to win in these kinds of moments was huge," Portland State head coach Michael Seemann said afterwards.
 
The Vikings won eight of the final nine points in the third set after trailing 21-17, giving them a critical 2-1 lead over the Grizzlies (2-11, 2-11 Big Sky) when they just as easily could have been down 2-1. Montana nearly pulled off a similar comeback in the fourth set, turning a 22-15 Viking lead into a narrow 22-20 margin, but the Vikings (2-11, 1-10 Big Sky) regrouped to close out the match four points later.
 
"I thought we did a really good job of just grinding, which is something we haven't done a lot this season," Seemann said of his team's comeback in the third. "We've built up some armor, from being down and finding a way to scratch our way into a match. That was a huge momentum shift for us."
 
Late comebacks characterized all four sets Sunday. The Vikings trailed 17-11 in the first set against the Grizzlies but then won 10 of the next 12 points to take a 21-19 lead. Parker Webb and Gabby Hollins – as they would all afternoon – led the Vikings with two kills each in the run, and the team closed out the set a few points later.
 
The Grizzlies gave the Vikings a taste of their own medicine in the second set, as they scored seven straight points to go up 18-16. The Vikings rebounded to fight off two set points, but the Grizzlies eventually closed it out, 28-26. Serving led the Grizzlies in their comeback, as they aced the Vikings three times over the latter half of the second set, while the Vikings committed two service errors on top of that.
 
Both teams saw momentum swings in the third set. The Vikings took an initial 11-6 lead, only to see the Grizzlies go on an extended, 13-4 run to take a 19-15 advantage. The Grizzlies still led 21-17 before the Vikings went on their crucial 8-1 run to steal the set.
 
Freshman Ashleigh Barto got the run started with back-to-back kills, then added a third a few points later to make it 22-21 Montana. Zoe McBride followed with a kill of her own following a crazy point where setter Ally Wada had to just punch the ball up from the ground. That turned what could have been a 23-21 Montana lead into a 22-22 tie, giving momentum to the Vikings while frustrating the Grizzlies.
 
Hollins backed up the momentum swing with an ace, while Barto then came up big again with a block alongside Webb that gave the Vikings set point at 24-22. The Viking defense forced an attack error on the next point, giving them an improbable 25-22 win in the third.
 
The Vikings weren't out of the woods in the fourth set, however, as the Grizzlies mounted a comeback with five straight points late in the set. A Montana service error snapped the Grizzlies' run, and put the Vikings two points away from victory at 23-20. Barto gave the Vikings match point at 24-21 two points later, and the Viking defense closed it out by forcing a Montana attack error on the next point.
 
Sunday's match marked the first time this season that four different players finished with 10 kills or more. The Vikings hadn't done that since Oct. 3, 2019, when they beat Northern Arizona in five sets. Webb and Hollins led the way for the Vikings with 15 kills each, while Webb, Hollins and McBride all finished with double-doubles.
 
Webb added 11 digs to her 15 kills while hitting .306 in the match.
 
"Parker continues to expand her toolbox. If you charted her shots tonight, I thought she did a really good job moving the ball around quite a bit," Seemann said of Webb.
 
Hollins, meanwhile, added 10 digs to her 15 kills while hitting .209.
 
"I thought [Gabby] did a good job of working herself back into the match," Seemann said of Hollins. "There was a little bit of a slump in there where she kind of got blown up on the block, two hitting errors, and we replaced her with Jas [Jasmine Powell]. But she came back out and was one of those players who really came back and turned it around and found a groove."
 
McBride finished with 12 kills and 16 digs, recording her second double-double in the Vikings' past three matches after she also had a strong weekend at Montana State last week.
 
Barto also backed up her own strong weekend at Montana State with her best offensive match of the season Sunday against the Grizzlies. Barto finished with a career-high 12 kills on .550 hitting, the first time a player has hit over .500 with at least 12 kills since the team's season-opening match last season.
 
"Ashleigh had a great afternoon. We wanted to go to her and give her, kind of a one-and-half-tempo set for her to crunch on. She did really well, picking them apart," Seemann said of Barto.
 
Sophomore libero Ellie Snook set a four-set season high with 25 digs to lead all players Sunday. Snook now has 75 digs in the team's last three matches, giving her an average of 5.77 digs per set during that stretch. That's given Snook the Big Sky lead in digs per set again, after she fell from the top spot following a mini-drought in the middle of the season.
 
The Vikings host the Grizzlies again Monday at 6 p.m., when they'll look for more of same. Once you get back in victory lane, after all, you don't want to leave.
 
Match Notes: The Vikings improved to 52-18 all-time against the Grizzlies after Sunday…The Vikings hit .256 (65-22-168) Sunday, their second-best hitting percentage in a match this season…The Vikings' 65 kills were also their second most in a match, following the 73 they had against Idaho in their season-opening win over the Vandals…Wada and Maddy Reeb split time at setter during the match, with Wada finishing with 28 assists and Reeb 18.