PORTLAND, Ore. — Conference play marks a new season, and through two Big Sky matches this Portland State volleyball team looks like a new team. The Vikings shook off a narrow loss in the first set against Montana Saturday, dominating the next three sets to secure a 3-1 win (24-26, 25-19, 25-19, 25-16) at Viking Pavilion.
 
The Vikings (3-10, 2-0) hadn't won a match in which they lost the first set this season. That is until Saturday, when they made it look easy, playing with confidence despite the early deficit against the Grizzlies (5-8, 0-2).
 
It's part of a mentality switch that's come at the perfect time for the Vikings. On Thursday, the Vikings put a tough non-conference schedule behind them to beat Idaho and start conference play 1-0. On Saturday, it was overcoming the first-set loss against a tough Montana team.
 
"I think we're showing signs of more resiliency. That's the bottom line," head coach Michael Seemann said of the team's mentality switch.
 
"I think we all felt like we let the first set slip away. I think we controlled the set for the most part. A little jittery. But we came out and executed what we wanted to do based on our scout. That's why I thought we felt like we really knew what we needed to do to get the win."
 
The mental toughness Saturday fueled a seasonal-best performance from the Viking offense against a Grizzlies team that came into the match as one of the Big Sky Conference's best defenses. Montana entered Saturday ranked second in the Big Sky in blocks per set and third in opponent hitting percentage. And yet, the Vikings set season highs for:

• Hitting percentage (.355)
• Kills (69), AND
• Assists (66)

 
The Vikings' .355 hitting percentage not only marked a new season high, it bettered the team's previous season high (.259) by nearly 100 percentage points. It also marked the first time an opponent had hit over .300 against the Grizzlies this season.
 
Everybody contributed to the high hitting percentage. The Vikings had five players finish with at least 10 kills in the match – the first time they've had that many players in double figures in 17 years (since Nov. 17, 2007) – and all five players hit over .300 in the match.
 
"There was no glaring weakness we saw when we scouted this team," Seemann said of going up against Montana. "We've been really, really trying to talk about shot selection for the outsides. And sets two, three and four, our serve receive just got way more calm and more confident, and your hitting percentage is the result of your pass quality, no question.
 
"But even then, some of those rallies at the end of the fourth sets where it's going back and forth, and Carisa [Barron] snaps a ball into area one. That's the kind of stuff that they're getting way better at and starting to really be what I call erasers. Like, we're in disaster mode, but you give it to her and she gets us out of it. The pins did that really well tonight, all three of them."
 
Setter Ella Hartford deserves a huge amount of credit for the Vikings' near-perfect distribution. The senior set a career high with 60 assists while setting another career high with 16 digs.
 
Carisa Barron led the Vikings in kills for the second straight match, recording 18 kills on .341 hitting while finishing a dig short of a double-double with nine digs. Makayla Lewis followed Barron with 16 kills on .306 hitting to go with 11 digs. Delaney Nicoll added 13 kills on .345 hitting to go with 11 digs. Middle blockers Naomi White and Reese Biesemeyer chipped in 11 and 10 kills, respectively, while hitting .346 and .588 between them.
 
As a team, the Vikings hit .300 or better in the final three sets of the match, including a near-perfect fourth set in which they recorded 20 kills on .607 hitting. The Vikings hadn't hit .600 in a set since they hit .692 in the fifth set of a win over Montana on Oct. 14, 2021. They hadn't hit over .600 in a 25-point set since Sept. 10, 2021, against Grand Canyon.
 
Barron and White starred in the close-out fourth set for the Vikings. Barron recorded six kills on nine swings, recording only one error while hitting .556 in the frame. White put up five kills on seven swings, while hitting .571 with one error.
 
Both Barron and White had two kills each during a closing 8-2 run for the Vikings. White recorded the kill on match point, after an ace from Barron got the Vikings on the precipice.
 
Nicoll and Lewis produced for the Vikings in the third set, combining for 12 of the team's 17 kills in the frame. Nicoll recorded seven kills on nine swings, hitting .667 with one error in the set. Lewis, meanwhile, had five kills on .444 hitting in the frame.
 
Nicoll recorded three straight kills late in the third set that helped turn a tenuous, 21-18 Viking lead into a comfortable 24-18 advantage.
 
The Vikings put themselves in good positions offensively thanks to a seasonal-best performance from the back row. Montana came into the match ranked third in the Big Sky Conference for aces per set. That's helped fuel their defense this season, and yet the Vikings showed little trouble with the Grizzlies' servers.
 
Montana's Paige Clark came into the match leading the Big Sky and ranked in the top 50 nationally for aces per set. She contributed to that reputation with two aces Saturday, but the Vikings limited her impact by holding her to only a couple serves at a time. Clark's longest serving run against the Vikings was two.
 
"You watch their previous matches, [Clark] holds her service almost five or six times every time," Seemann said of Clark. "And that was one of our goals. When [Clark] serves, it needs to be one and done.
 
"They're all good servers. That's part of their defensive identity. But I thought we got really confident. I don't think I've seen that all year."
 
Lewis and libero Paige Stepaniuk anchored the back row for the Vikings, taking the lion share of the receptions. Stepaniuk set a season high with 22 digs in the match. Hartford (16), Lewis (11) and Nicoll (11) all joined Stepaniuk in double figures for kills.
 
As a team, the Viking defense held the Grizzlies to .166 hitting, the second-lowest mark for a Viking opponent this season. Additionally, the Vikings out-blocked the Grizzlies 6.0-to-3.0 in the match. Barron tied her career high with two solo blocks, while White led the Vikings individually with three blocks.
 
"This was a team effort," Seemann said of the win. "I know we didn't dig deep into the bench at all, but everyone played their part really well. Even when things weren't going according to plan, we still made plays and that's also a sign of maturity and resiliency."
 
The Vikings proved themselves to be resilient in starting Big Sky play 2-0 this weekend. They'll need to be resilient against next week, as they hit the road to face defending Big Sky regular-season champion Sacramento State on the road on Oct. 4.
 
Bottle up what the Vikings showed Saturday, and they'll be just fine.
 
Match Notes: The Vikings improved to 58-20 all-time against the Grizzlies with Saturday's win…The Vikings have won eight straight at home against the Grizzlies, including every match played in Viking Pavilion…The Vikings would have set a Viking Pavilion attendance record with 898 fans in attendance Saturday, if not for the 1,340 fans who attended their match against then-No. 12 Oregon on Sept. 18 earlier this season.
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