PORTLAND, Ore. — Win by two.
The Portland State Vikings lived and died by that basic rule of volleyball Thursday night against a Montana State team that came into the match tied atop the Big Sky standings. The final four sets between the Vikings and Bobcats were all decided by two points, the first time that's happened for the Vikings since 2013. Fortunately for the Vikings, they won the most important two, fighting off a match point to take the fourth set, 26-24, and then closing out the match with a 15-13 victory in the fifth.
The five-set victory (25-17, 23-25, 24-26, 26-24, 15-13) for the Vikings (7-10, 3-3) gave them the season sweep over the Bobcats (9-8, 4-2). The Bobcats have dropped only two conference matches this season with the Vikings responsible for both after they also swept Montana State in Bozeman on Sept. 27.
It gets crueler for the Bobcats as Thursday's comeback from match point down was the Vikings' first since Oct. 19, 2023, against…Montana State.
"That was them digging in," Portland State head coach
Michael Seemann said of his team's comeback. "There were people in the huddles saying, 'let's step up and get this done.' That's what I needed to see and hear."
After fighting off match point to win the fourth set – a set in which both teams had runs of seven or more – the Vikings got out to a hot start in the fifth. They led 4-1 after back-to-back kills from
Sydney Stenson and only allowed one tie from there while maintaining control of the set.
Back-to-back kills from
Alivia Eikenberg – two of a career-high 23 kills for Eikenberg, who was playing on her birthday, no less – pushed the Vikings' lead back out to three, 8-5. Eikenberg's last kill of the match gave the Vikings their first match point at 14-11. The Bobcats saved two match points, but the Vikings converted on the third when an attack from MSU's Joelie Spelts sailed wide.
Fifth sets had been a sore spot for the Vikings this season. They entered Thursday just 1-4 in five-set matches. The Bobcats, meanwhile, came into the match 5-1 in five-set matches, with three of their five wins coming over conference opponents. But the Vikings outhit the Bobcats .250-to-.074 in the frame while recording 12 kills on their 15 points in the set.
"There was just a higher level of focus defensively in the fifth set," Seemann said of the change he noticed within his team. "The stops that we made, the touches that we had, there was just a higher level of focus. It was the same focus that I felt we came in with in the first set. I don't know why we got looser [in the fifth set], but there was a clear determination there from our players."
The offense – after struggling last week at Northern Arizona and Northern Colorado, where they hit just .140 and .111, respectively – put together its best match of the season. The Vikings set a season high with 78 kills as a team while Eikenberg (23 kills),
Tyra Schaub (20 kills) and
Naomi White (16 kills) all set career highs in the match. The Vikings have only had three players record 10+ kills in three matches this season, and nearly added a fourth as
Amber Walker tied her career high with nine kills.
It was a theme that emerged early for the Vikings. They opened the match with 19 kills on .455 hitting, both marks representing the Vikings' best in any set during a Big Sky match this season.
It was the distribution that got it done for the Vikings. Six different players recorded multiple kills in the opening set, while White and Schaub led the way with five kills each.
White was untouchable at the start of the match, recording kills on seven of her first eight swings. White came into Thursday averaging just 1.06 kills per set within Big Sky play. Her 16 kills against the Bobcats were 10 more than her previous best within a conference match this season.
"The first set, we pretty much carried out our scouting report. But then there was all that stuff in between," Seemann said, laughing. "It felt like in the fifth set, we came back to the scouting report."
The Vikings struggled to string points together in the second set and third sets. The Vikings dropped the second set, 25-23, but took a late lead in the third, 20-18, after an ace from
Reese Biesemeyer. The Vikings held a set point at 24-23 off a kill from Eikenberg, but the Bobcats got back-to-back kills then an ace to claim a 2-1 lead in the match.
It appeared that the third-set loss had taken the fight out of the Vikings early in the fourth. The Bobcats led 12-8 with the Vikings committing a number of disjointed errors. But the Vikings flipped a switch from there, winning the next nine points in a row to take a 17-12 advantage. Eikenberg recorded four kills in the run, including three straight at one point. White had back-to-back kills herself, while she also chipped in with a solo block as well as a combo block with Eikenberg.
That wouldn't be the final twist in the story, though. With the Vikings still leading by five at 21-16, the Bobcats rattled off seven straight points to go up 23-21. A kill from Biesemeyer got the Vikings out of the run, while White followed with another kill from the middle.
The Bobcats earned a match point with a kill from Camryn Greenwald, but Schaub erased that to make it 24-all. Stenson and White put the Vikings in front with a block, giving space for Schaub to play hero again with a kill that sent the match to a fifth set.
"I felt confident in our siding out. I really did. Even though they started putting tougher serves on us. We started getting some of these passes outside of the 10-foot line. But I was confident in our siding out. It was the defense that needed to change," Seemann said of the comeback in the fourth set."
The defense matched the offense with its best showing of the season. The Vikings set a season high with 89 digs as a team, while they tied their conference season high with 9.0 blocks in the match. The Vikings held the Bobcats below .200 hitting as a result (.197), the first time the Vikings have done that to their opponent in their last four matches.
White led the Vikings at the net, contributing to six of the Vikings' nine blocks in the match. Eikenberg set a career high with five blocks, while she was also one of four Vikings to go into double figures for digs.
Paige Stepaniuk led the back row while tying her career high with 30 digs, while Schaub, Eikenberg and
Ava Blascziek followed with 18, 14 and 13 digs, respectively.
Schaub, Eikenberg and Blascziek all recorded double-doubles in the match, and all were filled with career highs. Schaub set career highs for kills (20), digs (18) and aces (4) while recording her third double-double of the season. Eikenberg's 23 kills (a career high) and 14 digs gave the freshman her sixth straight double-double and 10th of the season. She needs only three more double-doubles to tie Garyn Schlatter's freshman record of 13 from 2010. Blascziek, meanwhile, set a career high with 42 assists to go with her 13 digs, recording her fourth straight double-double and sixth of the season.
The Vikings' opponent Saturday also played a five-set match, as the Montana Grizzlies got reverse swept at Sacramento State Thursday night. That should put both teams on a level playing field in terms of conditioning.
And the Vikings know the most basic rule of volleyball after Thursday's win. You got to win by two.
Match Notes:
- The Vikings improved to 51-27-1 all-time against the Bobcats with Thursday's win.
- Thursday marked the first time since Oct. 12, 2013, that the Vikings played a match in which four sets were decided by two points. The previous match was a five-set road loss to North Dakota.
- The Vikings are now 12-10 in two-point sets this season, as well as 5-4 in sets that go to extra points.
- Eikenberg tied the freshman record for kills in a match with her 23 against the Bobcats. She also set the record for attempts with 65.
