SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Five-point deficits late in games or matches are nothing for the Vikings.
 
A day after the Portland State women's basketball team erased a five-point deficit with 38 seconds remaining in an overtime win over Seattle U, the Portland State volleyball team erased a 5-0 deficit at the start of the fifth set against Sacramento State. The Vikings won 10 of the next 12 points and 15 of the final 19 to beat the Hornets, 3-2 (24-26, 25-19, 25-21, 21-25, 15-9).
 
It's only the sixth victory for the Vikings at The Nest in program history and just the second win since 2014.
 
"We made a commitment to approach each point as emotionally consistent as possible and not let the highs and lows affect how we played tonight," Portland State head volleyball coach Michael Seemann said after the match. "We accomplished that tonight, and so the deficit in the fifth did not necessarily phase us."
 
The consistency Seeman asked of his players was reflected in how they played the game. The Vikings (16-11, 11-5 Big Sky) out-hit the Hornets in every set Friday, including the two they lost. They also hit .286 or better in four of the five sets, while holding the Hornets (14-14, 10-6 Big Sky) to under .150 in four of the five sets.
 
The Vikings hit .286 over the entire match, the best mark of any Big Sky team against the Hornets this season. Sacramento State came into the match leading the conference with an opponent hitting percentage of just .154, but the Vikings nearly doubled that Friday. The .286 mark was also the Vikings best hitting percentage against the Hornets – always a tough defensive team – since they also hit .286 on Nov. 19, 2019.
 
They did it behind the trio of setter Madison Friebel and hitters Parker Webb and Makayla Lewis, all of whom set either season or career highs in the match. Friebel set a career high with 60 assists while orchestrating the offense for the Vikings. Webb and Lewis, meanwhile, both set season high with 23 and 22 kills, respectively. Webb recorded her 23 kills on .400 hitting, while Lewis hit .288 on her 22 kills.
 
Middle blocker Ashleigh Barto also contributed to the offense with nine kills on .467 hitting, while fifth-year senior Zoe McBride came off the bench to record seven kills over the final three sets of the match.
 
As much as the offense sparkled, though, the defense was just as important for the Vikings. They held Sacramento State to .150 hitting Friday, the Hornets' lowest mark in their past six matches.
 
In doing so, the Vikings tied their season high with 82 digs, matching their total in their five-set win at Northern Arizona on Oct. 1. Libero Ellie Snook tied her individual season high with 31 digs, while Lewis and Webb also went into double figures with 14 and 13 digs, respectively.
 
Key to the defensive effort was the Vikings' play at the net. The Hornets came into the match leading the conference with 2.78 blocks per set in conference matches, and yet the Vikings essentially matched them Friday. The Vikings tied their conference season high with 10.0 blocks, only one off the Hornets' total of 11.0. Ashlyn Blotzer led the team's efforts at the net with six blocks, while Barto and Friebel had four blocks each.
 
"We knew that we needed to defend well against a very good home team in SAC," Seemann said.
 
Still, it was almost all for naught after the Hornets went up 5-0 at the start of the fifth set. The Vikings called timeout at that point to steady themselves, and the team immediately responded with four straight points to get back within one. After the Hornets snapped the run with a kill, the Vikings answered with six of the next seven to take a 10-7 lead. Lewis had two kills during the 6-1 run, while Webb had a kill and an ace.
 
Defense rose to the top for the Vikings from there. With Ella Hartford serving, the Vikings forced the Hornets into three straight attack errors that gave the Vikings match point at 14-8. McBride then sealed the deal on the Vikings' second match point, as she went cross court for a kill that ended it.
 
The road win at The Nest makes for a strong lead-in to next week's Big Sky tournament for the Vikings. The victory clinched the No. 2 seed for the team. Weber State and Montana, which play each other Saturday, could still tie the Vikings for second, but the Vikings hold the tiebreakers over both teams. The Vikings hold the tiebreaker over the Wildcats due to their season sweep of the Wildcats. Meanwhlie, the the Vikings hold the tiebreaker over the Grizzlies due to having won more total points in their two matches against each other.
 
Who the Vikings will play in the first round of next week's Big Sky tournament is still very much up in the air. That will get sorted Saturday when the rest of the conference concludes the regular season.
 
But that's all for next week. Friday, the Vikings found a way to win despite going down 5-0 at the start of the fifth set in an arena in which they were just 5-25 all time coming into the match.
 
It's just the Viking way.
 
Match Notes: The Vikings improved to 27-50 all time against Sacramento State with the win…Snook's 31 digs Friday assured her of leading the conference in digs per set for the third straight season…Webb's 26.0 points push her career total to 1,740.5, leaving her just 49 short of breaking Jessica Brodie's current Division I program record of 1,789.0.