PORTLAND, Ore. — Tied 1-1 against one of the top teams in the Big Sky Conference in Northern Colorado, Portland State head volleyball coach Michael Seeman changed up his lineup. Seemann went to a 6-2 formation and shuffled around his middle blockers, fulfilling a promise he made at the beginning of the season to chase opportunity over continuity.
 
Well, Seemann – two days after his birthday, no less – served the role of Nostradamus Thursday, as the Vikings won sets three and four handedly to beat Northern Colorado, 3-1 (26-24, 24-26, 25-18, 25-18), at Viking Pavilion.
 
"I think now we're starting to see some of the benefit of playing more players early in the season," Seemann said after the match. "We used almost everybody today. And they're coming in and contributing. They're making a difference."
 
It's not as if the Vikings (11-12, 7-5) had played poorly up until the second set. They split a pair of extra-point sets with the Bears (11-14, 8-4), coming back to steal the first set, 26-24, and nearly doing the same in the second set before falling by the same score.
 
But the change gave the Vikings a new look that the Bears couldn't match. The Vikings posted their best two offensive sets of the match in the latter two sets, including 18 kills on .349 hitting in the fourth set. That's no small feat against a Northern Colorado defense that came into the match ranked second in the Big Sky while holding conference opponents to .169 hitting on average.
 
The Vikings topped that Thursday, outhitting the Bears .211-to-.151. The Vikings were the first Big Sky team to hit over .200 against the Bears since Montana State hit .250 on Oct. 4.
 
"That's a credit to our setters. Ava [Blascziek], at the start of the match, and then Allie [Panter] coming in and giving us the offense we needed," Seemann said.
 
"They're very well coached [Northern Colorado]. They'll release on you or they'll commit to your middles, and so you're constantly in a chess game with them. And that's what we did, and I thought Ava in particular did a really good job of breaking that."
 
Freshman Alivia Eikenberg came alive to lead the Vikings in the third set. She recorded seven of her match-high 16 kills in the third, including three as part of a 7-3 start to the set for the Vikings. Reese Biesemeyer – inserted into the lineup in the third set as Brenna Coffman moved to the right side – also started the third set strong, recording two blocks and a kill in the first seven points.
 
Tyra Schaub took control of the set late, recording two aces as part of a 5-0 run to finish it for the Vikings. Schaub then got hot in the fourth set, recording seven kills on .400 hitting to go with seven digs in the frame.
 
The Vikings opened up a 16-6 lead at the start of the fourth set at which point they were hitting .476 in the frame. The Bears would tighten the set, eventually getting back within two after an extended 11-3 run, but the Vikings responded with five straight points to earn match point. Schaub finished it off on the Vikings' second try with her final kill of the match.
 
Both Eikenberg and Schaub had slow starts to Saturday's match. Schaub didn't have a kill in the opening set, while Eikenberg was hitting .000 through two sets. But both found their groove later as Schaub recorded 12 kills over the final three sets while Eikenberg hit .272 over the final two.
 
"You've got to get some crunchers first. You've got to get some in-system swings first and then you can be more confident and take some of those high-risk swings when you're not in a good position," Seemann said of Schaub and Eikenberg's resilience in the match.
 
The Vikings also showed signs of growth in the opening set, when they mounted another late comeback. Trailing most of the set, the Vikings were two points away from losing the opener as the Bears took a 23-21 lead.
 
It was a similar position the Vikings found themselves in against Idaho State last week when they trailed 23-20 in the third set of a match tied at 1-1. The Vikings found a way to come back and win that set, and the match at Idaho State, and did so again Thursday against the Bears.
 
Setter Ava Blascziek started the comeback with a dump, while a UNC error then tied the set at 23-all. The Vikings saved a set point at 24-23 with a kill from Eikenberg, then went back to their star freshman to earn their own set point at 25-24. A stuff block from Naomi White and Sydney Stenson completed the comeback and gave the Vikings a 1-0 lead.
 
"I would say in the past, the weight was heavier if we started going down. We'd all just kind of fall with it. Whereas now, I think, we're a little more resilient and we're a little deeper. So, if someone is struggling or they're making a good adjustment on somebody, we can go to somebody else to get that swing," Seemann said of the first-set comeback.
 
It was fitting that the first set ended with a block as the Vikings out-blocked the Bears 9.0-to-6.0, finishing one block shy of their conference season high. Stenson set a new career high with six blocks in the match to go with seven kills on .250 hitting. White also had six blocks while chipping in eight kills on .438 hitting offensively.
 
Five different players recorded at least seven kills for the Vikings. Eikenberg led all players with her 16 kills, while Schaub (12), Coffmann (8), White (8) and Stenson (7) followed her. Eikenberg added 13 digs to her 16 kills, giving the freshman her 14th double-double of the season. She needs two more to tie Melissa Osterloh's freshman record of 16.
 
Schaub recorded her sixth double-double of the season with 13 digs to go with her 12 kills. Blascziek finished with her 10th double-double of the season with 32 assists and 10 digs. Fellow setter Allison Panter nearly recorded a double-double despite playing only two sets, recording eight assists and eight digs.
 
Libero Paige Stepaniuk passed assistant coach Diana Villalpando on the career list with her first two digs of the night en route to a team-high 18 against the Bears.
 
The victory over the Bears opened a three-match stretch for the Vikings in which they'll play the current top three teams in the Big Sky Conference back-to-back-to-back. The Vikings will host Northern Arizona Saturday (7 p.m.), before traveling to Sacramento State next Friday, Nov. 14. Both NAU and Sacramento State are tied for first in the Big Sky standings after the Hornets beat the Lumberjacks in five sets in Sacramento Thursday.
 
The Vikings got the first of the three Thursday in beating the Bears. They've now won four of their last five heading into their home finale against NAU Saturday.
 
Match Notes:

• The Vikings improved to 23-26 all-time against the Bears with Thursday's win. It was the Vikings' first win over the Bears in their last five tries and marked their first victory against them since Sept. 23, 2023.
• Eikenberg tied her career high with three aces in the match. Schaub had two aces, her fifth match with multiple aces out of the Vikings' last eight.
• The Vikings' victory in the first set means they're 8-1 when winning the first set this season versus 3-11 when they don't.
• Northern Colorado's .151 hitting percentage was the lowest mark by a Viking opponent since the Vikings held Montana State to .128 hitting on the opening weekend of the Big Sky season.
• The Vikings are 6-0 in Big Sky play when holding their opponent below .200 hitting versus 1-5 when they don't.

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