The past week saw two disappointing losses for the Portland State women’s volleyball team, dropping its record to 4-4.
The Vikings put up a fight against the University of Portland last Tuesday night but weren’t able to pull out the win, despite giving the Pilots a bit of a scare.
The final score for the cross-town match-up was three games to one, in favor of the visiting Pilots. The individual game scores, however, weren’t so one-sided.
Game one was concluded in decisive fashion by the Pilots; 30-22. Game two saw the Vikings bounce back only to lose 30-27. Game three belonged solely to Portland State; 23-30. And the deciding game four was a nail biter, with the Pilots squeaking by PSU 32-30.
Team leaders for the Vikings in total number of kills were Kristina Thom and Richell Wilson with 12 and 18 respectively. In the assist category, Katie Kaysinger had an outstanding 41 assists. Also, Stacy Ball recorded a total of seven blocks on the night.
The Pilots ran away with the match, simply outplaying Portland State with 71 kills to the Vikings’ 51. Leading the Pilots in that category was Bridget DeChant with 17 kills. She was helped by teammate Sara Engstrom who ended the night with 33 assists.
Ultimately, the Pilots came away with the win and all that the Vikings could do was hope to recover in time for their next game. Friday night, the road took them to Cheney, Washington, where they met the Eastern Washington Eagles.
The Eagles took it to Portland State early and never relented. They finished the match three games to zero. The closest the Vikings ever got was in the first game when they scored 15 points against 30 by the Eagles.
Kaysinger suffered a concussion during Tuesday night’s game against the University of Portland, and was unable to play Friday night against the dominating Eagles. She was replaced by a well-abled Jeannie Robison who recorded 21 assists and tied for a team high nine digs along with Thom.
Richell Wilson, PSU’s leading scorer, was only able to put down 10 kills. Nicole Geils added to the kill list with three kills on four attempts. Leading the Vikings in digs were Juniors Thom and Stacy Ball who had eight and nine digs respectively.
The Eagles were led by standout Janelle Ruen who recorded 11 kills, eight digs and no errors on the night. Courtney Bush also contributed to the Eagles’ win with nine kills and 15 assists. The final scores for the three games were 30-15, 30-11 and 30-11, with each match going to Eastern Washington.
This week, Portland State will get a much-needed break before they head East to face Idaho State on Friday, followed by a Saturday match at Weber State.