Women’s volleyball stung by first conference loss

It took Sacramento State five sets to do it, but the Hornets walked off their home court with a 3-2 win on Saturday to hand Portland State women’s volleyball its first loss of Big Sky Conference play.

Portland State fought hard and finished with set scores of 23-25, 25-23, 25-22, 12-25 and 15-12. The Vikings now stand with an 8-7 overall record, and are 4-1 in conference. With the win, Sac State advances to 9-10 overall, and 2-2 in the Big Sky.

Portland State began the first set with a quick point, but a combination of Viking attack errors and kills from the Hornets’ Kayla Beal rapidly gave Sacramento State a 6-2 advantage. Portland State answered back with a run and eventually saw its biggest lead of the set, at 15-10, off an attack error from the Hornets’ Olivia Moss.

Not giving up, Sac State kept Portland State at 15 and scored four unanswered points to cut the Viks’ lead to 15-14. In the end, though, it was the Vikings who claimed victory in set one with a kill from freshman setter Garyn Schlatter.

In the second frame, Sac State took both the opening point and the set victory. The Vikings got back-to-back kills from freshman middle blocker Cara Olden and senior outside hitter Whitney Phillips to give them their biggest lead of the set, 15-9, but the Hornets rallied to make it a 17-all tie. Portland State pushed to the end to gain its last lead of the set, 21-19, off a Hornets attack error before Sac State took the set 25-23.

The third set stayed close, but Portland State was never able to grab a lead in the 25-22 loss. The Viks pushed to a tied score 21-all from a kill by senior middle blocker/outside hitter Christie Hamilton. The Hornets quickly responded with a 3-point run and the winning kill from Beal.

The Vikings dominated set four, going on an early 4-point run to bring the score to 7-2. Sac State did not hold the lead for the entirety of the set, and a final kill by Phillips gave the Viks a 25-12 set win to lock the game up at two sets each.

The night came down to the fifth and deciding set. The Viks, not able to sustain the momentum from the previous frame, watched the Hornets take the deciding win. The biggest point difference of the entire set was the final 15-12 Hornet victory. A kill from Phillips brought the Viks to trail by just one, 13-12, but she followed with a service error to put the Hornets up, 14-12, and going for match-point. A kill from Beal, her 18th on the night, ended the game and broke the Vikings’ five-match winning streak.

Sophomore outside hitter Megan Ellis led the Viks with 18 kills of her own, and topped it off with 25 digs. Both were new personal bests for her, breaking her previous marks of 13 kills and five digs.

For the first time this season, Phillips did not lead the Vikings in kills and came in just behind Ellis with 17 kills and 17 digs. Behind Phillips, senior middle blocker Lana Zielke chipped in 10 kills and blocked a career-high nine attacks.

Schlatter dominated the floor in assists, pulling 38 of the team’s 58 total. Sophomore setter Dominika Kristinikova also posted a new career-high with 17 digs, which was just short of current libero Diana Villalpando’s 20 digs for the night.

The loss puts the Viks in second place in the Big Sky standings, behind Northern Colorado, who holds a perfect 4-0 Big Sky record but has also played one less conference opponent.

Portland State will return to the Park Blocks this Thursday for a non-conference match against Seattle University in the Stott Center. The match is slated for a 7 p.m. first-serve. Two days later, the Vikings return to conference action with a home meeting with Eastern Washington on Saturday. That match will also be held at 7 p.m. in the Stott Center. ?