PORTLAND, Ore. — Few of us can stay as poised as the Portland State volleyball team did Saturday while exacting revenge. Most of us would push too much or play outside of ourselves. But not the Vikings.
 
Facing a Northern Colorado team that beat them in last year's Big Sky championship match, the Vikings posted their best offensive match of the season in a 3-1 win (25-17, 25-18, 22-25, 25-17) at Viking Pavilion.
 
The Vikings hit a season-high .328 against the Bears while holding Northern Colorado to just .189 on the other side of the net. The Vikings hit .400 or better with 16 or more kills in all three sets they won, including 17 kills on .429 hitting in the close-out fourth set.
 
"One of our goals is to not put any more or less weight on any match. I didn't want to put any additional pressure on the team [today]. We didn't want to set ourselves up to make anything greater than what it is, which is just another opponent. And I thought we did a good job of just doing that," Portland State head coach Michael Seemann said after the match.
 
"I thought we did a really good job of just keeping our eye on the prize and really being process oriented within those rallies."
 
The Vikings' composure meant they stayed balanced offensively throughout the match. Three different Vikings finished with 10+ kills between Sophia Meyers (17), Gabby Hollins (15) and Delaney Nicoll (11), while six different Vikings had at least five kills. Setters Ella Hartford and Madison Friebel finished with 30 and 27 assists, respectively, orchestrating a Viking offense that not only set a season high for hitting percentage (.328) but also kills (59) and assists (58).
 
"I'm extremely proud of how the setters distributed," Seemann said of the team's offensive performance. "We weren't necessarily in-system very often. We were often in two-option territory, so we weren't able to get our middles many balls. Very pin-heavy. So, I couldn't be more proud of how they distributed."
 
Seven of Meyers' match-high 17 kills came in the fourth set when she hit .429.
 
Hollins was steady throughout the match, hitting .500 or better in all four sets, and recording four kills in three of the four. Hollins finished with 15 kills on .636 hitting, the third-best hitting percentage ever by a Viking in a four-set match and the best since Katy Wilson hit .684 against Montana in 2017.
 
Nicoll, meanwhile, set a new season high with her 11 kills, which came on .292 hitting.
 
Additionally, the other three Vikings who recorded kills Saturday all hit .333 or better. Kendra Duffey had six kills – including one on match point – on .353 hitting. Middle blockers Lauryn Anderson and Ashleigh Barto finished with five kills each on .571 and .333 hitting, respectively.
 
The offensive theme emerged early for the Vikings, as they ran out to an early 10-3 lead in the opening set. A 5-0 run on Paige Stepaniuk's serve extended the Vikings' lead to 16-6, with Stepaniuk contributing back-to-back aces at one point during the run.
 
Stepaniuk's aces were two of three for the Vikings in the opening set, another theme for the match that emerged early on. The Vikings would finish with 10 aces against the Bears, winning the serve-and-pass game against a perennially strong serving team in Northern Colorado.
 
The Vikings also had three aces in the second set, two coming from Friebel in a closing 4-0 run for the Vikings. Lauryn Anderson recorded the other ace at the end of a 4-0 run for the Vikings that put them up 13-9. That stretch gave the Vikings the lead for good, as the Bears never got closer than three points the rest of the way.
 
Serving nearly brought the Vikings back late in the third set, too, as Meyers had two aces during a 6-0 run that brought the Vikings to within a point of the Bears after trailing 23-16 earlier. The Bears still closed out the third set to extend the match, but the run, which also featured two kills from Hollins, gave the Vikings momentum going into the fourth.
 
Meyers added her fourth ace of the match at the end of a 3-0 run in the fourth set that pushed the Vikings' lead to 14-10. Another 4-0 run a little later extended the Vikings' lead to six at 20-14. Meyers added three more kills on the Vikings' next three points, before Barto and Duffey closed things out with back-to-back kills.
 
Meyers finished with perhaps her best all-around match of the season to date. In addition to her match-high 17 kills, she chipped in 11 digs, four aces and a career-high six blocks.
 
It was the blocking from Meyers that might have been the biggest surprise. To everyone except Seemann, perhaps.
 
"We came back from Idaho State a little exhausted since it's a long trip, and I told the team we should just rest rather than try to eke out an hour-long practice. But both left sides, Sophia and Gabby, demanded that they come in and work on blocking. And so, lo and behold, those two ended up having a very good blocking night," Seemann said.
 
Meyers' presence at the net helped the Vikings set a season high with 12.0 blocks as a team. Barto led the team with seven blocks individually, while Meyers (6) and Anderson (4) followed her.
 
Kate Hansen did the dirty work on the back line for the Vikings, finishing with a match-high 14 digs.
 
"She's one of those mentally tough kids. She really is," Seemann said of Hansen. "I thought she influenced them from the service line, too. She'd probably be the unsung hero of the match."
 
Saturday's match closes out a 2-0 opening weekend to Big Sky play for the Vikings, as they also beat Idaho State on the road in four sets Thursday.
 
There are plenty of matches still to go, but that's exactly where the Vikings want to be one weekend into a nine-week marathon. Especially with a win over the defending-champion Bears in their pocket.
 
Match Notes: The Vikings tied their all-time series with the Bears, 22-22, after Saturday's win…Saturday's win was only the third victory for the Vikings over Northern Colorado since 2013…The Vikings finished with 10 aces against the Bears, tying their second-best total in a match this season…The Vikings play a single match against Sacramento State next week, facing the Hornets on the road at 7 p.m. Friday.
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