PORTLAND, Ore. — The old rule of sports proved true Tuesday afternoon at Viking Pavilion.
 
Toughest team wins.
 
And the toughest team Tuesday was undoubtedly the Portland State volleyball team, which came back from a set down to beat Utah out of the Pac-12 Conference, 3-1 (20-25, 25-22, 25-20, 25-23). The Vikings (4-3) were down three would-be starters in the match, and yet pulled out the comeback victory over the Utes (2-3).
 
"We felt like we left maybe one or two wins on the table at Cal and at Saint Mary's and so I feared, a little bit, the hangover effect. I had to tell myself to be resilient in this case, especially hearing [before the match] that we had one of our regular starters out. But we prepared well for this moment," Portland State head coach Michael Seemann said afterwards.
 
Two of the missing would-be starters came as no surprise. Those were Makayla Lewis and Madison Friebel, who have been out since midway through the team's season-opening match against Kansas State. The new absence came when freshman libero Paige Stepaniuk was forced to sit Tuesday's match with a concussion.
 
Those three aren't just any would-be starters for the Vikings, either. Lewis and Friebel were both All-Big Sky first-team selections last season, while Stepaniuk picked up Big Sky Defensive Player of the Week honors after the opening weekend of the season.
 
And yet, the Vikings stepped up. Gabby Hollins, starting in place of Lewis, set a season-high with 18 kills on .267 hitting while adding 12 digs and two aces. Kate Hansen, starting in place of Stepaniuk, recorded four aces and seven digs. Meanwhile, setters Ella Hartford and VaiLin Tagaloa, sharing duties in the 6-2 formation in place of Friebel, finished with 21 and 18 assists, respectively. Tagaloa added 10 digs to her 18 assists, giving Tagaloa her second double-double of the season so far.
 
"Kate's been preparing well for this moment," Seemann said of Hansen. "She's coming off a concussion, too. She had a great practice yesterday and I think that's what our gym does. It's preparing every single person in there for whatever role that they may serve. But for Kate to come in and anchor that down and just be steady and good, was huge. That's a big role to fill."
 
The Vikings flipped things late in the second set. With Utah leading 20-17 and already a set up, the Vikings shook the Utes awake with an 8-2 run to level the match at a set apiece. Hollins had two kills in an initial 3-0 run that tied it at 20-all. Then, after Utah went back up 22-20, Lauryn Anderson kickstarted a 5-0 PSU finish to the set with the second of three kills she had late in the set.
 
Anderson added her third kill to put the Vikings up 23-22, after Hollins aced the Utes to tie it at 22-all. Anderson and sophomore Kendra Duffey then capped the comeback with a combo block at the net after another Utah attack error.
 
"At some point, my message to the team during a timeout was that it seemed neither team wanted to win. It felt like we were just waiting to lose [at that point] and Utah was just going through the motions across the net. From that point forward, I felt like we steadied ourselves and turned that steadiness into aggressiveness," Seemann said.
 
"Our ability from the service line was huge. I think in the beginning we had them off the net, too, but they got out of it, whereas as the match went on, we started wrapping them up, we started touching them, and then transitioning with that, too. That was a difference maker."
 
The Viking defense helped spark the comeback. Utah hit .435 in the first set, but then was held to just .143 in the second set. What's more, the Vikings held Utah's Lauren Jardine – ranked 12th in the NCAA with 4.73 kills per set coming into the match – to just nine kills and a negative hitting percentage (-.032).
 
Offensively, Hollins stepped up to lead the Vikings after a somewhat quiet weekend in California. Hollins had at least four kills in all four sets Tuesday, including four on only seven swings in the second set when she hit .571, and then six kills in the third set as the Vikings took a 2-1 lead.
 
"We had a good talk yesterday because I think she came off of last weekend a little disappointed with her performance," Seemann said of Hollins. "Today, what you saw was her being able to utilize her athleticism. And when she's confident, she's very hard to stop. And I thought she did a great job on both ends of the ball, as an attacker and as a passer, too."
 
The Vikings also got strong production out of their right-side hitters. Jasmine Powell finished with nine kills on .571 hitting, while Duffey had five kills opposite her.
 
Powell was perfect in the third set, recording three kills on three swings as the Vikings took a 2-1 lead in the match. Duffey also had two kills as part of an 8-1 PSU run that flipped the third set from a 14-11 Utah lead to a 19-15 PSU advantage.
 
"First conversation we had at the start of the season was, 'we need to get offense going from the right side.' Right now, they're both being very productive. On both ends, as blockers and as offensive attackers," Seemann said of Powell and Duffey.
 
The Vikings still had to gut out the fourth set to finish off the Utes. To the Utes' credit, they came alive in the fourth, erasing a 12-7 PSU lead early, and then an 18-14 lead later. The Vikings edged ahead again behind a kill from Hollins and an ace from Hansen that gave them a 22-20 lead. Powell and Hollins then answered points for the Utes with two more kills that got the Vikings to match point at 24-22. Utah erased the first match point with a kill from Emrie Satuala, but a service error followed, giving the Vikings the match.
 
Tuesday's win marks the Vikings' first win in three tries over a Power 5 Conference team this season. The Vikings had played well in their first two attempts, enough to justifiably feel like they should have had one by now. They were set points away from taking a 2-0 lead on Kansas State on Aug. 25, then had big leads in the first three sets against Cal only to drop two of the three in a four-set loss.
 
The Vikings no longer have to lament those previous losses, though. They broke through Tuesday behind yet another resilient showing from a battle-tested club.
 
Match Notes: The Vikings improved to 7-1 all time against the Utes, though they had only played twice since 1984…The Vikings are now 7-44 all time against current Pac-12 schools…Tuesday's win was the team's first against a Pac-12 opponent since their win over Oregon State on Aug. 27 last season…Anderson led the Vikings with four blocks in the match…Tuesday's win was the first time the Vikings had been outhit (.246 for the Utes, .209 for the Vikings) in a win since Nov. 6, 2021.
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