OGDEN, Utah — Question: are you more likely to go on a deep tournament run if you kick it off with a bit of revenge?
The Portland State volleyball team sure hopes so after they avenged a loss to Eastern Washington 11 days ago on Senior Night by beating the Eagles 3-1 (25-12, 23-25, 25-23, 25-17) Wednesday in the quarterfinals of the Big Sky tournament. The Vikings will now face either third-seeded Weber State or sixth-seeded Northern Colorado in the semifinals Friday.
The Eagles (11-18) made the Vikings earn it Wednesday at Weber State's Swenson Gym. The Vikings rolled in the first set, but then could never get over the hump in the second set. That was eerily similar to the Vikings' previous match against the Eagles, when they made up big deficits in the first and third sets, only to see the Eagles go back out in front both times. This time around, the Vikings made up a late five-point deficit to tie it at 23-all, but the Eagles won the next two points to claim the set and level the match at a set apiece.
But the Vikings (17-11) didn't shrink from the challenge. They pulled the same trick on the Eagles in the third set. The Vikings led 18-11 before a 10-3 run for the Eagles tied it at 21-all.
Sophia Meyers broke ties at 21- and 22-all with kills, but the Eagles won the next point each time. Still, after a service error from the Eagles gave the Vikings set point,
Ashleigh Barto came up with the play of the night, blocking the Eagles' Renata Lopez Morales by herself to close out the set and give the Vikings a 2-1 lead in the match.
Makayla Lewis then took that momentum and ran with it. She had three kills in the first four points of a 7-0 run that gave the Vikings an early 10-3 lead in the fourth set. Her sixth kill of the frame gave the Vikings a 17-8 lead later, while her seventh kill put the Vikings five points away from victory at 20-13. A few points later, setter
Madison Friebel sealed things with her second ace of the match.
"We were able to handle the first contact really well, which allowed us to expose the matchups we wanted," Portland State head coach
Michael Seemann said afterwards. "Ashleigh and Ashlyn [Blotzer] figured out different ways to score, and really did a great job blocking today."
The Vikings recorded nine blocks Wednesday, with Barto part of eight of the nine as she tied her career high in the category. The strong play at the net helped the Vikings hold the Eagles to .108 hitting, a stark contrast to their match 11 days earlier when the Eagles .219 against the Vikings.
Offensively, four different players recorded at least nine kills for the Vikings. Lewis led the way with 16 kills, seven of which came in the fourth set when she hit .462. Meyers recorded 12 kills on .296 hitting for the match, while Barto added 11 kills to her eight blocks for a near-double-double.
Parker Webb and
Ashlyn Blotzer, meanwhile, recorded nine and five kills, respectively.
The Vikings came out firing in the first set, reversing their previous slow starts against the Eagles this season. The Vikings lost the first two sets to the Eagles on Sept. 24, before coming back to win in five. They weren't as lucky the second time around, as the Vikings dropped the opening set in their match on Nov. 12 and could never get back out in front. But Wednesday, the Vikings recorded 17 kills on .333 hitting while cruising to a 25-12 victory.
The Eagles outhit the Vikings over the next two sets, but things reverted back to the opening set in the fourth. The Vikings held the Eagles to negative-.042 hitting in the fourth set, after they had held them to .000 in the first. Additionally, the Vikings held the Eagles to only 13 kills combined in the first and fourth sets, lower than the Eagles' total in either the second or third set alone.
Besides the defensive play at the net, the Vikings had three players finish in double figures for digs. Libero
Ellie Snook – named the Big Sky Co-Libero of the Year yesterday – led the Vikings with 13 digs, while Friebel and
Zoe McBride added 10 digs each. Lewis and Webb also had nine and eight digs, respectively, as they both nearly posted double-doubles. Friebel did post a double-double, as she added 43 assists to her 10 digs Wednesday.
Friebel – named the Big Sky's Top Newcomer yesterday – also had two aces in the match, as the Vikings played a steadier service game Wednesday than they did previously against the Eagles. Besides Friebel, Snook also had two aces in the match, while Webb added another. More importantly, the Vikings only committed five service errors while the Eagles had nine. That's a reverse from 11 days ago, when the Vikings had 13 service errors to the Eagles' eight.
Wednesday's win now advances the Vikings to the Big Sky semifinals for the second straight season. A break in the tournament for Thanksgiving gives the Vikings a bit extra rest, but then it'll be back to business Friday.
Win Friday, and the Vikings will advance to the Big Sky championship match for the first time since 2013.
Match Notes: The Vikings improved to 35-30 all time against the Eagles with the win…The Vikings improved to 2-2 all time against the Eagles within the Big Sky tournament…Barto's eight blocks tied a four-set match record for the Vikings at the Big Sky tournament…Snook's two aces gave her sole possession of third place in career aces within the Division I history of the Vikings' program.
