PORTLAND, Ore. — All good things come to an end. The Portland State volleyball team's seven-match winning streak – tied for their longest since 2013 – ended Thursday with a five-set loss (22-25, 25-22, 25-15, 20-25, 15-10) to Idaho State at Viking Pavilion.
It was the Vikings' first loss in four weeks going back to a 3-1 road defeat at Idaho on Oct. 15. It also snapped a run of three straight five-set wins for the Vikings (13-13, 9-6) over their win streak. The last time the Vikings lost a five-set match, it was to these same Bengals (18-9, 10-5) in Pocatello on Oct. 3.
Both times, the Bengals seemed to put the Vikings on the back foot. Thursday night, the Bengals outhit the Vikings .275-to-.222, while they put the Vikings out of system with their serving more often than the Vikings did them.
That certainly hadn't been the case a lot during the Vikings' seven-match winning streak.
"For the first time in eight matches, it felt like we were fragile all of a sudden," Portland State head coach
Michael Seemann said afterwards.
Even still, the Vikings nearly completed a comeback after falling behind 2-1. They switched into a 6-2 formation late in the third set, then stuck with that throughout a must-win fourth set.
The change helped spark the Vikings' offense, which produced 18 kills on .324 hitting in the frame. Freshman opposite
Katarina Kosic, who subbed in with senior setter
Asya Akbulut when the Vikings switched to the 6-2, rewarded Seemann's confidence in her with five kills on .500 hitting in the frame.
Willow Watson produced three kills on .400 hitting as the other right-side hitter, while middle blocker
Brenna Coffman had four kills on .571 hitting.
"Once again, the 6-2 proved to be something that we can use," Seemann said. "I'm becoming more of a believer of being able to do it more full-time."
But the Vikings fell behind early in the fifth set, losing the first four points in the frame. And while they crawled back at various points, the Vikings were on the back foot again chasing the Bengals and never got closer than two points the rest of the way.
Four different Vikings finished in double figures for kills and digs. They had only done each of those things once before this season, and not in the same match.
Alivia Eikenberg led the Vikings with 14 kills while adding 10 digs for her fifth double-double of the season. Watson and
Ashley Repetti added 13 kills each on .300 and .289 hitting, respectively. Repetti added a career-high 20 digs to her 13 kills. Coffman, meanwhile, tied her career high for the second straight match with 12 kills on .360 hitting.
Defensively, libero
Paige Stepaniuk led the Vikings with 21 digs while nearly posting a double-double with nine assists. Setter
Ava Blascziek recorded her eighth double-double of the season with 38 assists and 13 digs. She needed only 21 assists Thursday to reach the 2,000-career milestone, which she hit in the second set against the Bengals.
But the Bengals matched and surpassed the Vikings Thursday. They had four players record double-digit kills and digs, themselves, while posting the best hitting percentage by a Viking opponent (.275) in nine matches.
Seemann lamented the lack of a PSU block at the net. The Vikings finished with just 3.0 blocks in the match. And while the Bengals only had 5.0 blocks themselves, the lack of a presence at the net meant the Vikings let the Bengals' offense off lightly.
"We didn't make plays at the net when we needed to. They were in a system they haven't been in all year, and we just let them work into that," Seemann said.
The only good thing about a loss on the Thursday of a conference week is the Vikings get another match in two days to bounce back. That's exactly what happened the last time the Vikings lost a match. They lost to Idaho on the Thursday of that week, then turned around and beat Eastern Washington two days later.
Sure enough, the Vikings host Weber State Saturday at 5 p.m. in what will be the final home match at Viking Pavilion for seniors Akbulut, Blascziek,
Jordyn Romano and Stepaniuk.
"It's another great team coming in. They're machine-like, you know. They don't make a lot of errors," Seemann said in looking ahead to Weber State.
"We just have to snap in and play a very different team. This will be a good test to see how we respond."
MATCH NOTES:
- The Bengals swept the season series with the Vikings, a year after the Vikings swept the season series in 2025. The Vikings still lead the all-time series between them and the Bengals, 42-31. They lead the Big Sky series, 30-29.
- Thursday marked the first time this season the Vikings lost a match in which they out-killed their opponent, which they did against the Bengals, 65-to-62.
- The Vikings hadn't had two players record 20+ digs in the same match this season.
