SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Tied 28-28 with Sacramento State in a must-win fourth set, the Portland State Vikings had two referee calls go against them that ended the match, 3-1 (26-24, 22-25, 25-18, 30-28), in favor of the Hornets at The Nest.
 
The up official called a lift on Portland State's Alivia Eikenberg to break the 28-all tie in the fourth set. The official then assessed a red card to Portland State head coach Michael Seemann as he was arguing the call. The red card gave an automatic point to the Hornets (17-9, 10-4), ending the match.
 
It was a bitter pill to swallow for the Vikings (11-14, 7-7), who had saved three match points earlier in the fourth set as they tried to push the match to a fifth set.
 
"We played excellent defense tonight. I am so proud of the way this team played strong in the fourth set. We can honestly say that we grew as a team tonight. We will continue to push. Sac State had a great crowd and is a great home team. It is too bad that it ended the way it did," Seemann said after the match.
 
The Viking defense deserved a different outcome Friday. The Hornets came into the match leading the Big Sky and ranked in the top 50 nationally in both hitting percentage (.256) and aces per set (1.91). And yet, the Vikings held them to .191 hitting and just three aces across four sets. The Vikings became the first Big Sky team, other than Northern Colorado, to hold the Hornets below .200 hitting this season.
 
It was a marked improvement over the Vikings' first match against the Hornets on Oct. 3. The Hornets hit .322 against the Vikings in that match – still a season high for a Viking opponent – while recording eight aces across four sets.
 
The Vikings played particularly strong defense on the Hornets' Victoria Marthaler. While she still led the Hornets with 19 kills, it came on .083 hitting with 13 attack errors. Compare that to the first meeting between the Vikings and Hornets, when Marthaler had 28 kills on .397 hitting, and the improvement was clear.
 
Paige Stepaniuk anchored the back row with 25 digs. Senior Tyra Schaub and setter Ava Blascziek both also went into double figures with 14 and 13 digs, respectively.
 
The Vikings tied their conference season high with 10.0 blocks at the net. That was the missing piece for the Vikings against league-leading Northern Arizona last Saturday. NAU out-blocked the Vikings 13.0-to-3.0 in that match in what was otherwise a competitive battle. Friday night, the Vikings were essentially level with the Hornets at the net (11.0-to-10.0).
 
Freshman Brenna Coffman and junior Naomi White both recorded eight blocks for the Vikings. That set a career high for Coffman while White tied her season high.
 
Offensively, Eikenberg led the Vikings with 24 kills on .179 hitting, recording the fourth 20-kill match of her freshman season. Her last two kills of the match saved match points at 27-26 and 28-27 in the fourth set.
 
Schaub added 13 kills on .229 hitting to go with her 14 digs, recording her eighth double-double of the season.
 
The Vikings struggled to get others involved in the offense outside of Eikenberg and Schaub, however. The other Vikings only had eight kills through the first three sets of the match, while the Vikings finished the match hitting just .153.  
 
The fourth set saw a little bit better distribution from the Vikings as they went to a 6-2 formation. Coffman and Sydney Stenson both had two kills on .400 hitting from the right side in the set. Ashley Repetti also came off the bench for a kill that gave the Vikings set point at 25-24.
 
Blascziek led the way with 35 assists for the Vikings. With her 13 digs, Blascziek recorded her 11th double-double of the season. Panter came off the bench to record 10 assists, seven of which came in the fourth set.
 
The Vikings will stay on the road next week as they close out the regular season at Idaho, Wednesday (6 p.m.), and at Eastern Washington, Friday (11 a.m.).
 
Match Notes:

• The Vikings fell to 28-56 all-time against the Hornets with Friday's loss. Friday marked the last Big Sky match between the Vikings and Hornets, as Sacramento State moves to the Big West Conference next season.
• The Vikings are 7-10 in extra-point sets this season after losing both the first and fourth sets in extra points Friday.
• Friday's match marked the first time in Big Sky play that the Vikings lost when holding their opponent below .200 hitting.

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