Volleyball team looks to end season on a winning note
Friday night, the Vikings fell to Weber State (8-4 in Big Sky play) in a disappointing five-game match (31-33, 30-24, 27-30, 30-26 and 8-15).
The Vikings went into the game with a 1-9 record, but records didn’t seem to matter as the Vikings gave the Wildcats quite a test.
Portland State gave Weber State a run for its money in the first game and every game after was just as closely matched.
Richell Wilson and Kristina Thom led the Viking’s scoring unit with 30 and 20 kills respectively.
However Wilson recorded a .319 hit percentage on the night, which was matched by Nicole Geils’ eight kills and .353 hit percentage.
Stacy Ball led the defense with 23 digs. Three other Vikings, Kristin Ratzlaff, Stephanie Lavigne and Thom also all had dig numbers in the double digits.
Lavigne put some numbers for Portland State’s stat sheet in the way of assists with 64. Along with her 64 assists, Lavigne, as well as Wilson, Ball and Katie Young, each recorded three service aces for the match.
The Wildcats were able to put the match away thanks to five of their players who each were in the double digits in kills. Stephanie Metcalf led that effort with 17 kills and a .357 hit percentage.
Saturday’s match-up featured the Vikings against the Idaho State Bengals, who were 3-8 in Big Sky play, was the last home game for the Vikings.
The Vikings weren’t able to find a way to win as the Bengals took the match in three straight games. The final score of the match was Idaho State, three games to none over the hosting Vikings, 30-28, 30-21 and 30-25.
Wilson and Thom led the Viking’s scoring efforts with 13 and 11 kills respectively. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough to put away the Bengals as they outdid the Vikings with 51 total kills to just 39 for Portland State.
Lavigne had 30 assists to add to her nine digs on the night. Katie Kaysinger, Young, Ball and Thom had eight, seven, seven and six digs respectively for the Vikings.
Sarah Kozlowski recorded 42 assists for the Bengals, which along with the total number of kills, was enough to secure the victory for Idaho State. The Bengals also had two players in double digits in the digs department.
Portland State will now look to the upcoming weekend as they take on Northern Arizona and Sacramento State, both on the road. The last time the Vikings met these two teams was at the Stott Center and both NAU and STU were able to beat Portland State in three straight sets.
So far this season, the Viking’s sole Big Sky Win came when they beat Montana early in the year.
This weekend Portland State will look to put two more wins on its tally sheet.
