Viks spike Spartans

Portland State women’s volleyball earned a straight-set victory Wednesday in the exhibition match over Trinity Western at the Stott Center, 3-0. The game will not count towards Portland State’s overall season record, but they still played the Vikings’ winning way.

Now, Portland State (8-6, 4-0 Big Sky) will take its winning style on the road as the team faces off against Sacramento State in the Viks’ fifth conference match of the season. Sacramento State (7-12, 0-2 Big Sky) will face Eastern Washington on Friday, then PSU on Saturday. Sac State recently finished out a hard road trip with its first two conference losses.

In Tuesday’s exhibition, the first set opened with a kill by Trinity Western’s Kara Jansen-VanDoom and from there, the score stayed close. A service ace from Portland State senior outside hitter Whitney Phillips tied up the score, and following another tie at 10-all the Vikings pulled ahead to take the lead and win the first set, 25-21.

Set two featured a similar routine, with the Viks this time gaining the opening point. After going back-and-forth with the Spartans, the score landed at a sixth tie at 13-all. The Vikings once again took the lead from there to ride the set to a 25-20 win.

The Spartans held a tough defense in the final set, which kept the score solid. It wasn’t until a final run-beginning with a block from PSU’s outside hitter Kaeli Patton at 20-19-that the Viks pushed to their game-winning set score of 25-22.

Set three saw the Viks earn their best attack percentage of the night, .194. Phillips showed the best attack percentage of the night, (.750), followed by middle blocker Cara Olden (.400).

YEAR setter Domi Kristinikova dominated the night in assists, posting 14 of the team’s 22 total. On digs, it was Diana Villalpando that led the Viks with 10 of the team’s total of 24.

Wednesday’s match was the second in which the two teams have faced each other, and the Vikings took both- last season in a 3-1 victory. This match was only Trinity Western’s third game this season, all of which have been losses.

Head coach Michael Seemann said his Vikings will need to take the blocking to an even higher accuracy than what they showed against Trinity Western.

“Sac State has got a really nice arsenal of outside hitters that are really good at attacking high hands and attacking the block,” Seemann said. “What I want to work on tomorrow before we go down there is our blockers-just staying disciplined, staying zone tight.”

Last season, Portland State took home its first win at Sac State after losing 15 consecutive games on the Hornets’ Colberg Court. This weekend’s match will mark the 50th time the two teams have faced each other.

Portland State currently leads its opponents in solo blocks, 26-20, but is behind in total blocks 134.5 -116.

Senior Phillips continues to lead the Viks in kills, both overall and in conference. Seemann said Phillips’ focus for the Sac State game, and for future play, is on her errors.

“I certainly think she did a good job providing good clean offense,” Seemann said. “We’re trying to reduce her errors,” he added. “I don’t think the team put a lot of pressure on her but she definitely reduced her unforced errors.”

Portland State currently leads the Big Sky conference, and is outranking its conference opponents in five of the seven conference-only statistics: hitting percent, assists, kills, services and digs.

The Vikings’ game will be at Sac State this Saturday, Oct. 2 at 7 p.m. Game coverage can be found at www.goviks.com.