Just rolling through

Heading to Sacramento, the Portland State women’s volleyball team was playing its best volleyball of the season. With the Vikings’ ticket to the Big Sky Tournament punched, they prepared for a Sacramento State team that was fighting for its playoff life, with the fourth seed in the tournament still up for grabs. 

Looking for their fifth-straight 20-win season, Portland State also had a chance to win for the first time ever on Sacramento State’s home court. With both teams having plenty of reasons to win, it was no surprise that the match turned into a grueling struggle until the last point was tallied on a 3-1 win by the Vikings.

Portland State performed well, despite the absence of senior outside hitter Marija Vojnovic, a key player on this year’s squad. In her place, senior outside hitter Lindsey Steele tallied 10 kills, 15 digs and .205 hitting in her first significant action of the year.

“I can’t say enough about the job Lindsey did tonight,” said head coach Michael Seemann. “She filled a huge void with Marija being gone. She did a fantastic job of defending and anchoring our serve receive.”

Drawing first blood, Portland State used a combination of kills from junior outside hitter Whitney Phillips and unforced attack errors by the Hornets to win set one, 25-21.

Never trailing once in the first set, Portland State appeared to be in control of the match until the Hornets finally broke out of their shell in the second set. The Hornets put together a late rally at the end of the set to win, 22-25, putting an end to the Vikings’ streak of 25 consecutive set wins.

With the score tied, Portland State got back to work and started playing Vikings volleyball—which consisted largely of getting the ball to Phillips and letting her find the openings in the defense. Getting a total of 24 kills on the night, she scored eight in the third set and paced the team to a 25-22 win.

With the Hornets reeling, the Vikings gave them a healthy dose of Phillips to put the game away for good. Showing why they are the best team in the conference, Portland State never trailed in the final set and earned a convincing 25-20 win to finish the match.

“The easiest way for me to put it, is that she [Phillips] just put us on her shoulders for awhile,” Seemann said. “She had shown symptoms of the flu today, and wasn’t doing well heading into the match. But if we would have had to go five sets, I know we would have gotten some more great swings out of her.”

Next on the schedule, the Vikings travel to Cheney, Wash., for the Big Sky Championship Tournament on Friday, where they vie for a berth in their second-consecutive NCAA Tournament.

The Vikings will play fourth-seeded Montana at 5 p.m., and tournament-hosting Eastern Washington will play Northern Colorado at 7 p.m. The two winning squads advance to the championship match at 7 p.m. on Saturday.