BERKELEY, Calif. — The Portland State Vikings swept Southern Utah to open a Friday doubleheader in which they hope to sweep their two matches of the day. It's the third straight sweep for the Vikings, who now haven't dropped a set since their season opener against Kansas State last Friday.
The 3-0 win (25-16, 25-20, 25-18) over the Thunderbirds (2-2) saw the Vikings nearly hit .300 for the second straight match. They'll have to settle for outhitting the Thunderbirds .297-to-.102 while out-killing them 48-to-31.
"We are staying organized in transition," Portland State head coach
Michael Seemann said of his team's recent success. "We gave ourselves a lot of opportunities to convert defensive points, and I thought we did that well today. Overall, very proud of this road win."
Nearly half of the team's kills came from the right arm of
Sophia Meyers. She finished with a match-high 20 kills, the most kills by a Viking in a three-set match since Whitney Phillips had two 21-kill matches in 2010. Meyers hit .295 Friday while adding 14 digs for her second double-double of the season.
Eleven of Meyers' 20 kills came in the first set when she hit an astonishing .588. For reference, no other player on either team had more than three kills in the opening frame. Meyers had more than triple that. She then added another seven on .545 hitting in the third set, including a kill on match point.
"Sophia got it going and took some rips out of system, and ended some SUU rallies," Seemann said of Meyers.
Not only did Meyers record the last point with a kill, she also opened the match with a kill, which she followed immediately with one of her two aces in the match. Meyers recorded kills on six of the Vikings' seven points during an early stretch of the match that put the Vikings up 14-11. At that point, Meyers was responsible for more than half of the team's points with eight kills on over .600 hitting. She'd add another three kills amid a 7-1 PSU run to close out the set at 25-16.
Ashleigh Barto and the Vikings' block then stepped up in the second set when the Thunderbirds started punching back. Barto had four blocks in a 6-1 start to the set for the Vikings, but the Thunderbirds went on a big run soon after that. A 12-3 SUU run flipped a 9-3 PSU lead into a 15-12 advantage for the Thunderbirds. The Vikings responded with a 4-0 run of their own to go back out in front, which included a kill from Barto and service ace from
Ella Hartford that made it 16-15 PSU.
The 4-0 run turned into an 8-1 stretch for the Vikings after Barto added another kill while Meyers aced the Thunderbirds to put the Vikings up 20-16. The Vikings' sixth block of the set gave the Vikings set point a few moments later, and Meyers ended it – as she would every set during the match – with another kill.
The third set followed a similar script in that the Vikings went up 9-4 early only to see the Thunderbirds come back and tied it at 10-all with a 6-1 run. However, this time the Vikings never led the Thunderbirds push ahead.
The Vikings went back ahead with a 4-1 run that featured two Meyers kills, then stretched their lead with a 7-2 stretch a little later that gave them a 23-16 advantage.
VaiLin Tagaloa had two aces in the late 7-2 run, while
Gabby Hollins added two kills.
Barto finished with 11 kills on .588 hitting while posting one of her better all-around matches as a Viking. In addition to her 11 kills, Barto nearly doubled her career high with seven digs in the match, while matching her season high with five blocks, three of which were solo.
"We liked our matchups in the middle, and Ashleigh took advantage of that," Seemann said of Barto.
Fellow middle blocker
Lauryn Anderson added three kills on .429 hitting while she was second to Barto with four blocks in the match. As a team, the Vikings set a season high with nine blocks against the Thunderbirds, with
Jasmine Powell adding three block assists alongside the team's middles.
In the back row, Hartford set a career high with 15 digs while recording her second double-double of the season with 23 assists. Tagaloa had 16 assists and seven digs while splitting time with Hartford in the Vikings' 6-2 formation. Hollins nearly added another double-double for the Vikings as she finished a kill away with nine kills and 11 digs.
The Vikings will return to the same court later in the day when they face host Cal at 7 p.m. Earn a win there and the Vikings will have not only swept Southern Utah but swept the day.
Match Notes: The Vikings improved to 15-6 all time against the Thunderbirds with Friday's win…Friday's match was the first time the Vikings and Thunderbirds faced each other as non-conference opponents…Southern Utah was a Big Sky Conference member from 2012-21 during which time the Vikings were 14-6 against the Thunderbirds.
