PORTLAND, Ore. — Every team has to know how to finish, and boy, did the Portland State volleyball team know how to finish its match against Northern Arizona Thursday.
 
Through two and a half sets, the longest run for the Vikings had been four points. That's it, and yet the Vikings still led two sets to none. So, when Northern Arizona opened up a 12-4 lead at the start of the third set, it looked to everyone in Viking Pavilion as if the match would go to four sets.
 
Not so fast, my friend.
 
Still down eight at 15-7, the Vikings won 18 of the final 21 points of the match, including the last 11 straight to complete a 3-0 sweep (25-20, 25-22, 25-18) of the Lumberjacks. The win gives the Vikings (14-7, 9-1 Big Sky) their fourth sweep out of their last five matches, and extends their win streak to seven matches heading into a pivotal matchup against third-place Northern Colorado Saturday at 2 p.m.
 
"Makayla [Lewis] was striking it well from the service line so that took a lot of pressure off of our block, but I think Morgan [Halady] came in and really did a good job of getting some quality touches and a couple of stuffers and started influencing their hitters," Portland State head coach Michael Seemann said of the finishing run.
 
"They started chipping quite a bit and we were able to turn those into good swings. Sophia got hot late so that combination was all part of it. But I think we also settled down on defense and that was the biggest difference. I think we were often times overplaying some things and underplaying tips, too, so I liked how we settled down on defense there."
 
An initial 6-1 run got the Vikings back within three at 16-13 in the third set. Two straight blocks kicked off the run, while Ellie Snook added an ace – her third of the match – a little later. The 'Jacks (3-14, 2-8 Big Sky) went back up by four at 18-14, but that'd be the last they'd score as the Vikings won the final 11 points of the match.
 
Makayla Lewis opened the 11-0 run with back-to-back kills and she'd be the one serving throughout the finishing burst. Sophia Meyers added four kills later on during the run, as she recorded half of her 10 kills in the match in the third set alone.
 
Morgan Halady, who subbed on with NAU leading 13-5 in the third set, also gave the Vikings a lift off the bench. She recorded two blocks and a kill during the closing 11-0 run, matching her season highs in both categories.
 
"For Morgan to come in and do what she did, I mean, she's been working her absolute butt off in practice every single day and hasn't seen court so for her to come in and get rewarded with a couple of stuff blocks and a couple of kills was awesome.," Seemann said of using Halady off the bench. "I'm so happy to see that. It puts faith in her as a player who can perform in those big moments.
 
The big deficit in the third set mirrored the Vikings' match against Sacramento State last Saturday. The Vikings fell behind 17-7 in the third set against the Hornets after going up two sets to none, nearly an identical situation to the one the Vikings faced Thursday against the Lumberjacks. But while the Vikings couldn't complete the full comeback against the Hornets – they got back within two points but ultimately needed four sets to win that match – they finished the job in three sets against the Lumberjacks.
 
"We try to pull lessons from all of these matches, but it's our determination that changed," Seemann said of his team. "That third set, we played like it was in the 20s. We've talked about that all season long. Playing in the 20s, there's a certain sense of urgency but also an extreme sense of focus, and I'm not sure we had that at all during the match until that third set."
 
The comeback in the third set gave a positive finish to what was at times an uneven match for the Vikings. While the Vikings hit .412 with 18 kills in the first set, they followed with .153 and .154 marks in the second and third sets, respectively. The Vikings still recorded at least 15 kills in every set Thursday – their 52 kills in the match marked their second most in a three-set match this season – but they also had 17 errors combined across the second and third sets.
 
Fortunately for the Vikings, their defense rose to the challenge. The Vikings held NAU to just .160 hitting Thursday, including an .060 mark in the third set. Five different Vikings went into double figures for digs, just the second time this season that the Vikings have accomplished that feat. Snook led all players with 17 digs while also added eight assists and three aces. Meanwhile, the four players behind Snook – Lewis, Meyers, Parker Webb and Madison Friebel – all recorded double-doubles in the match.
 
Lewis, Meyers and Webb all went into double figures for kills along with digs, the fifth time out of the team's 10 Big Sky matches that those three have all recorded 10+ kills in the same match. Webb led all players with 14 kills on .310 hitting to go with 11 digs. Lewis followed Webb with 13 kills to go with 10 digs, while Meyers added 10 kills and 14 digs.
 
Friebel, meanwhile, recorded 40 assists and 11 digs, the third time this season that she has topped 40 assists in a three-set match.
 
All told, the Vikings outhit the 'Jacks .214-to-.160, while out-digging them 70-to-62, out-acing them 6-to-2, and out-blocking them 6.0-to-5.0.
 
Northern Colorado also won Thursday, beating Sacramento State 3-1 on the road to record their fifth straight win. As a result, the Vikings and Bears will take the two longest winning streaks within the Big Sky Conference into their match Saturday at 2 p.m. One of the streaks will have to end, then.
 
If the Vikings play like they did at the end of Thursday's match, it won't be theirs.
 
Match Notes: The Vikings improved to 24-31 all time against Northern Arizona with Thursday's win…The Vikings have won three straight against the Lumberjacks, including a five-set win in Flagstaff on Oct. 1 earlier this season, the team's first road win over NAU since 2011…The Vikings have outhit 13 of their last 14 opponents, and held 13 of their last 14 opponents to under .200 hitting…Snook moved past Sacramento State's Breanne Menees (2008-11) for fourth all time in career digs within the history of the Big Sky Conference.