GREELEY, Colo. — A heartbreaking second-set loss left the Portland State volleyball team in a hole it couldn't climb out of, as the Vikings had their season end in the quarterfinals of the Big Sky tournament, losing 3-0 (25-21, 31-29, 25-18) to fourth-seeded Weber State.
 
The Vikings led 23-18 in the second set of Wednesday's match at Bank of Colorado Arena. They secured three set points when Sophia Meyers put down a kill to make it 24-21. The Wildcats erased all three to push the set to extra points, tied 24-24. The Vikings re-took leads at 25-24, 26-25, 27-26, 28-27 and 29-28, but the Wildcats saved set point each time. Weber State then earned its first set point at 30-29 and converted right away.
 
The back-breaking loss left the Vikings in a 2-0 hole that got even deeper when they went down 12-3 at the start of the third set. The Vikings tried to come back, getting back within six points a couple of times, but never closer.
 
"I believe we played well enough to win sets one and two. I'm disappointed, and this hurts," Portland State head coach Michael Seemann said after the match.
 
The Vikings (16-12) outhit the Wildcats (19-9) .281-to-.125 in the first set, leaving Seemann justified in his belief that his team should have had it. The Vikings led 8-2 early in the set, and still led 13-9 when things started to shift towards the Wildcats. The momentum shifted behind the Wildcats' serving, which produced six aces in the set. Four of the six came in a 10-2 stretch for the Wildcats that turned the Vikings' 13-9 lead into a 19-15 deficit.
 
The Vikings answered that run with five of the next six points to tie up the set at 20-all. But four Portland State errors – three attack errors and a service error – gave the set to the Wildcats, 25-21.
 
To the Vikings' credit, they bounced back in a tight second set. After Weber State led 9-6, the Vikings won seven of the next nine points to go up 13-11. Lauryn Anderson had two blocks during the run, including a solo block in the middle of the net to make it 13-11. Gabby Hollins and Kendra Duffey – two of the Vikings' best offensive players in Wednesday's quarterfinal – also added a kill each.
 
It was still just a one-point set at 19-18 when the Vikings put four straight points together to go up 23-18. Back-to-back blocks ended the 4-0 run, with Anderson providing another solo block before teaming up with Delaney Nicoll for the second.
 
But that's where the heartbreak came for the Vikings. The Wildcats won six of the next seven points to level it at 24-all, then saved another five set points in the extended part of the set. There were eight set points saved in total for the Wildcats in the second set, and the Vikings couldn't shake that off in the third.
 
The Wildcats' serving advantage ended up a landslide. Weber State finished with 11 aces while the Vikings – the Big Sky Conference's top serving team with 1.77 aces per set coming into the tournament – failed to record an ace for only the second time all season.
 
The Wildcats also ended up outhitting the Vikings .223-to-.198 despite the Vikings' big advantage in the first set. It was the first time in the Vikings' last six matches that they failed to hit over .225 in a match.
 
Hollins led the offense with 10 kills on .240 hitting. It was Hollins' fourth straight match with double-digit kills, as she recorded 10+ kills in 11 of the Vikings' 16 Big Sky matches. Ashleigh Barto added seven kills on .375 hitting, while Duffey and Meyers chipped in six kills each. Duffey's six kills came on only nine swings as she hit .667 in the match.
 
Wednesday's loss ends a season that featured the program's first season sweep of Oregon State since 1980, as well as key conference wins over Northern Colorado (3-1 on Sept. 23), Montana State (a reverse sweep on Oct. 19) and Sacramento State (3-1 on Nov. 10).
 
"I've asked the team to call upon the brilliant moments that we produced all season long," Seemann said in reflection of his team's season. "Those of us returning will have a very clear understanding of what it takes to advance in the tournament next year."
 
Match Notes: The Vikings still lead the all-time series between them and the Wildcats, 41-24…Weber State was the only team in the Big Sky Conference that the Vikings didn't beat this season…Meyers didn't record an ace Wednesday, but still finished off a single-season program record with 0.47 aces per set this season.
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