PORTLAND, Ore. — No match encompasses an entire collegiate experience. Not even Senior Day.
But, as single matches go, the Portland State volleyball team couldn't ask for a better one than a 3-1 win (25-16, 26-24, 17-25, 32-30) over the conference leaders in Sacramento State on Senior Day. Add in that the Vikings won two of the four sets by two points – coming back from a late deficit to win the second, and then fought off five set points in the fourth – and you have the perfect final home match of the Vikings' 2023 season.
"I'm most impressed with them. I was the one who was...not queasy, but this and that," Portland State head coach
Michael Seemann said of handling the emotions before, during, and after the match. "Gabby [Hollins], who was the one who had a lot of tears before the match, she was 100 percent dialed in and focused. I was really impressed with that. And I thought the people who weren't seniors, it felt like they were of course playing to win, but also like they were playing for them.
"That was one of the things I said to them beforehand, 'let's play for them, let's play for the seniors tonight in this home gym.' And they gave it everything."
It wasn't just the context of Senior Day that made Friday unique. The opponent, Sacramento State, also provided some heft to the victory. The Hornets came in having won seven matches in a row and 12 of their first 13 against Big Sky opponents. A win for the Hornets (19-9, 12-2 Big Sky) Friday would have given them at least a share of the Big Sky regular-season title. But the Vikings denied them that opportunity in front of a season-high 813 fans.
It's tough to look past the fourth set in painting the picture of Friday's win for the Vikings (16-9, 9-5 Big Sky). The set featured 21 ties. Twenty-one. That's nearly as many points as it takes to win a regular set. Of course, it went well beyond a normal set, with the Vikings winning, 32-30.
The Hornets controlled the early part of the frame, as they led 15-12 at the media timeout. Five straight points on
Ella Hartford's serve saw the Vikings push back in front at 17-15, though the Hornets eventually retook the lead at 21-20. Neither team could string more than a point together after that.
Delaney Nicoll recorded kills on three straight points for the Vikings, but it was only to draw level each time. When Sacramento State's Tiyanane Kamba-Griffin put down a kill to give the Hornets a 24-23 lead, it was the first of what would be five set points for the Hornets in the fourth set.
Gabby Hollins saved the first set point with her 10th kill of the match. There was a communication mix-up between the Viking coaches and players after that.
Kate Hansen came in for Hollins, but that was the Vikings' 15th and final sub of the set, meaning Hansen -- a 5-7 defensive specialist -- would have to play in the front row if the set extended past a couple rotations. And of course, it extended well past just a few more rotations.
The Vikings saved two more set points on a pair of Sacramento State service errors, the second of which made it 26-all.
Kendra Duffey, forced to serve since the Vikings were out of subs, then put down an ace to give the Vikings their first match point at 27-26. The Hornets erased that with a kill from Ellie Tisko, then earned their fourth set point with an ace from Kate Doorn. Two more service errors from the Hornets erased two more set points, however, leaving the set tied at 29-all.
Sophia Meyers gave the Vikings their second match point with a kill, then did so again after the Hornets erased the first with a kill from Kalani Hayes.
Ashleigh Barto – one of the seven Viking seniors honored before the match – finally put an end to it with a kill after a Sacramento State blocking error. The blocking error wasn't called initially, so the Hornets kept playing and got what they thought was a kill that would have leveled the set again. But a challenge from Seemann flipped the point and ended the fourth set, 32-30, in favor of the Vikings.
The challenge to finish the match was just about the only thing that was anticlimactic in the fourth set. Everything else had fans on both sides feeling butterflies in their stomachs.
"Heart," Seemann said when asked how the team pulled out the fourth set. "We had Ella and Kate in the front row. There are no x's and o's to execute in that situation, we had to just gut-check it and get it done."
The more impressive comeback may have come earlier in the match when the Vikings won the second set, 26-24. The Vikings trailed for the majority of the set, including falling behind by as many as seven points when the Hornets led 16-9. The Vikings got back within two with a 6-1 run that featured three kills from Meyers, but the Hornets answered that, pushing their lead back out to four at 22-18. It was still a three-point SAC lead at 23-20 when the Vikings finally flipped it, scoring six of the final seven points to steal the set, 26-24.
Madison Friebel served back-to-back aces to tie the set at 23-all, while
Lauryn Anderson put down a kill to give the Vikings set point at 24-23. The Hornets saved that, but the Vikings converted on their second opportunity two points later when Anderson and Nicoll combined for a block.
"That's where I felt the proudest in terms of what we did," Seemann said of the comeback in the second set. "We were always behind the entire set, and then we kind of crawled our way back in it and then flipped it in the end with really tough serving."
The biggest surprise Friday may have come in the hitting percentages for both teams. The Hornets hit .366 and still lost. For context, the .366 mark is the best hitting percentage by a Viking opponent this season, and yet the Vikings still won the match. Match-by-match records at Portland State are only complete through 2005, but at no point during the past 18 seasons have the Vikings won a match in which their opponent hit .366 or better.
The Vikings hit .314 themselves, the third time they've topped .300 in their last five matches. Neither of those previous times came against a defense as good as Sacramento State's, however. The Hornets came into the match leading the Big Sky in both opponent hitting percentage and blocks per set. No opponent had topped .300 against the Hornets all season, and yet the Vikings did it while distributing the ball evenly across their attackers. Six different Vikings finished with at least six kills in the match while no one had more than 11.
"We looked at film of our last match against them and just stopped it at certain points and just went 'this is an opportunity to set the middle, this is an opportunity to set the middle.' And I thought both setters found them in good situations, and put our outsides in a position to score even when we were out of system," Seemann said of the offense.
Meyers led the Vikings with 11 kills on .235 hitting to go with seven digs. Anderson and Hollins followed with 10 kills each while hitting .588 and .300, respectively. Nicoll added nine kills on .333 hitting, while Barto and Duffey chipped in seven and six kills between them.
Beyond the offense, serving was the key difference maker for the Vikings. Seven different players contributed to 10 aces for the Vikings. Friebel, Hartford and Hansen all had two aces each, while the Vikings also got contributions from Anderson, Duffey, Meyers and
Paige Stepaniuk.
"It was every single person going back there and wailing," Seemann said of the team's strong serving. "And aces only give you part of the picture. If you look at the total attempts,
Ella Hartford served 23 times. That's almost a full set-worth of points. That means she's holding serve, and that means she's serving tough. We have to credit our success to a lot of that, for sure."
The Vikings also limited their serving errors Friday while the Hornets committed 20 errors themselves, including several at key points in the match.
Friday's win gives the Vikings six in their last seven matches, including five straight at Viking Pavilion to finish their home schedule. The Vikings hit the road for two more matches at Montana and Montana State next weekend before heading to Greeley, Colo., for the Big Sky tournament, starting on Nov. 22.
The Vikings have to like how they're playing heading into the tournament. Friday's win over the Hornets gave the Vikings wins over every Big Sky team except Weber State, which the Vikings only played once this season.
"Obviously there's another week of conference and a very tough road trip ahead of us. But certainly, moving forward this is a win that allows us to believe that we can compete with anyone in the conference. We certainly showed it tonight," Seemann said.
Match Notes: The Vikings improved to 28-51 all-time against the Hornets with Friday's win…The Vikings honored Anderson, Barto, Friebel, Hollins, Meyers,
Makayla Lewis and
Jasmine Powell before the match…The Vikings gave up only 8.0 blocks to the Hornets after they finished with 18.0 the last time the teams faced each other on Sept. 29…Stepaniuk led all players with 15 digs in the match.
