Volleyball makes tough trip to Montana

The Portland State women’s volleyball team faced a must-win situation as it traveled to Missoula, Mont. on Friday to take on the Montana Grizzlies. The Vikings put on quite a show for their hosts, but weren’t able to hang on for the five-game match, falling 30-27, 30-27, 18-30, 26-30 and 10-15. Portland State attempted to keep its playoff hopes alive. Montana also had a lot riding on the match as they too tried to acquire a spot in the top six in order to reach the Big Sky Conference playoffs. The Vikings didn’t wait long to show Montana what kind of play they were capable of. They came out swinging and took game one, 30-27.

Game two was a repeat of game one as the Vikings jumped out in front of the Grizzlies, wining with a score of 30-27 again. But it just wasn’t enough for the Vikings who desperately needed the win.

Portland State fell behind in game three and Montana won 30-18. And that’s all she wrote.The Grizzlies won game four 30-26 as well as the match-determining game five 15-10. The Vikings were outmatched in the kills 70-57. However, three Portland State players had kills in the double digits.

Kristina Thom, Richell Wilson and Katie Young had 15, 14 and 10 kills respectively. Freshman setter Stephanie Lavigne recorded 27 assists and 11 digs during the match. Helping Lavigne was injured setter Katie Kaysinger added 15 assists.

Wilson, along with Young, Kristin Ratzlaff and Thom had big dig stats with 18, 14, 11 and 10 respectively.

The Grizzlies were led by Lizzie Wertz who had 18 kills and Joy Pierce with 16 kills. Both players racked up 16 digs. In the assists category, setter Wendy Baker had a total of 52 assists. Portland State headed to Bozeman, Mont. on Saturday where the team played the Montana State Bobcats. There, the Vikings fell in three games straight.

Games one, two and three belonged solely to the Bobcats who won them all 30-22, 30-24 and 30-22.

Portland State just wasn’t up to the task coming off the loss to Montana the night before. The Vikings weren’t able to keep up with the Bobcats as Thom was the only Viking to have kills in the double digits with 17.

The offensive leaders for Montana State were Anne Watts who had 13 kills and hit .344 percent, and Falin Schaefer who had 17 kills and six digs in the match.

With the two weekend losses, Portland State now falls to 1-8 in conference action. The Vikings will look to better that record next Friday night as they host Eastern Washington in the Peter W. Stott center at 7 p.m.