PORTLAND, Ore. — The last time the Portland State volleyball team beat the Oregon State Beavers, the demolition of the Berlin Wall was just underway and Tim Berners-Lee had newly published his proposal for the World Wide Web. If those aren't clues enough for how long it's been, the Vikings' last win over the Beavers was nine years before Parker Webb – the oldest member of the Vikings – was born. Head coach Michael Seemann was still in high school.
 
If you haven't guessed it yet, the Vikings' 3-1 win (21-25, 25-19, 25-17, 25-20) over the Beavers Saturday at the Hotel Vance Rose City Showdown was their first win over the in-state Pac-12 program since 1990. The Vikings hadn't beaten any Pac-12 program since Sept. 2, 2017 – a 3-1 win over Arizona State – and they entered Saturday's match just 5-43 all time against Pac-12 opponents during the program's Division I era.
 
"It's a huge confidence booster for us. We're obviously going to see a very good team in Oregon tomorrow, too, but how awesome was that?," Seemann said of his team's win. "I'm just proud of them. I don't know if they saw a Pac-12 team across the net or if they just saw a team they were hungry to beat. And they did it. Super proud of the entire program. It's awesome. It's a great win for us."
 
The Vikings (1-1) got it done Saturday despite dropping the opening set of the match. Portland State led 16-11 midway through the first set, but the Beavers (0-2) came back behind a defense that limited the Viking attack to only .098 hitting in the frame.
 
Any worry that the Vikings would respond went away early in the second set. The Vikings never trailed in the set, as they ran out to a 5-1 lead and held at least a two-point advantage from that point on. What's more, the offense that had been limited in the first set came alive in the second. The Vikings recorded 16 kills on .353 hitting while holding Oregon State to .156 hitting on the other side of the net.
 
The distribution after the opening set – led by newcomer Madison Friebel at setter – sparked the offense. Three different Vikings recorded at least four kills in the second set, including middle blocker Ashleigh Barto. Seemann challenged the Vikings to find the middles after last night's 3-1 loss to Long Beach State, and Barto and fellow middle Ashlyn Blotzer responded. Held to just two kills combined last night, Barto and Blotzer combined for 12 kills on .417 hitting against the Beavers.
 
"We know that for us to be successful we have to get our middles involved and they did exactly that. [Ashleigh and Ashlyn] combined for a high hitting percentage and kill production, and that was a big reason why the pins got opened up," Seemann said of the middles.
 
"There were a couple of reasons for it. I think one of them was maybe going to the 5-1 [formation] and only having one setter and getting a feel for everything. Our passing was also strong so we were able to go to them in good situations, too."
 
Six different Vikings recorded kills in the third set, as the distribution again helped the Vikings outhit the Beavers .360-to-.036 in the frame. Outside hitters Sophia Meyers and Makayla Lewis – helped by the Vikings' production from the middle – led the way with three kills each in the third set.
 
Lewis helped the Vikings close the door in the fourth set, too, as she put together her best set of the match with six kills and no errors while hitting .545 in the fourth.
 
"We were firing, and I thought Madi did a good job of making those middles make longer moves, which really opened things up. But our left-sides really made good shot selection. We've been talking about making them play if we don't have a kill swing that we like and I thought that really paid off for us," Seemann said of the offense.
 
Overall, Lewis led the way for the Vikings with 14 kills on .324 hitting while adding seven digs, two blocks and an ace. Meyers recorded her final kill of the night on match point, putting an emphatic bow on her first double-double as a Viking. Meyers finished with 12 kills on .281 hitting to go with 13 digs in the match.
 
Friebel, another newcomer like Meyers after transferring to Portland State from Butler, also had the best night of her young Viking career. The junior setter finished with 32 assists and nine digs while also adding five kills on .625 hitting.
 
The production from the middles meant Barto and Blotzer had their best matches of the young season. Barto finished with seven kills on .357 hitting to go with a team-high five blocks. Blotzer, meanwhile, had five kills on only 10 swings and no errors (.500 hitting) while adding two blocks.
 
Webb had a productive match despite not having her best offensive output. Limited to four kills, Webb found other ways to score points for the Vikings as she recorded four aces and four blocks.
 
As much as the even distribution offensively contributed to the win, the Vikings' defense also came up big against the Beavers. Oregon State never hit better than .156 in any set Saturday, while the Vikings forced the Beavers into 31 attack errors.
 
Two-time Big Sky Libero of the Year Ellie Snook led the Vikings' defensive efforts with 18 digs, and was flawless on serve receive with 16 "0" receptions against no errors.
 
The Vikings were strong across the board on serve receive, as they won the battle at the service line a day after they lost it to Long Beach State. The Vikings out-aced the Beavers 8-to-5 behind four aces for Webb, two for Snook and one each for Barto and Lewis.
 
"[Serving] was the thing from last night to today that we wanted to see get better. Obviously, we made errors, but if you look [at the stats], I don't mind making 12 errors if we're going to have eight aces. And that's not counting everything in-between when they're behind the 10-foot line with high balls," Seemann said of the serving.
 
The Vikings face another test Sunday, as they host 19th-ranked Oregon at 1 p.m. to close out the Hotel Vance Rose City Showdown. The Ducks had a battle with Long Beach State earlier in the day Saturday, fighting off four match points before winning 18-16 in the fifth set.
 
It hasn't been quite as long since the Vikings' last beat the Ducks – Sept. 8, 2005 – but the Vikings can go for their first win against an AVCA top 25 opponent during the program's Division I era. After Saturday's win over the Beavers, there has to be at least a few believers in Viking Pavilion.
 
Match Notes: The Vikings improved to 33-11 all time against the Beavers with Saturday's win, though the Vikings had lost all seven of their matches against the Beavers since their last win in 1990…Webb moved into third place in Division I program history for both kills and aces during the match…Seemann was an assistant coach at Oregon State from 2002-04, making Saturday's win his first over his former employer.