COLLEGE VOLLEYBALL: Viks get first win at Sac State, head to Big Sky tourney

The Portland Tribune, Nov 20, 2009

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Portland State Vikings, Big Sky regular-season champions, hit the 20-win mark for the fifth year in a row with a four-set victory Friday night at Sacramento State.

The Vikings finished 14-2 in conference play, matching the 2006 team for the best Big Sky mark in school history.

Whitney Phillips let PSU with 24 kills in the 25-21, 22-25, 25-20, 25-20 triumph. She also had 14 digs for her team-best 11th double-double.

was her usual dominant self, registering 24 kills, to lift Portland State to its first ever win at Sacramento State on Friday night. PSU will enter next weekend's conference tourney at Eastern Washington as the top seed and will play fourth-seeded Montana at 7 p.m. Friday.

The Vikings played without senior outside hitter Marija Vojnovic, who stayed in Portland with the flu.

Lindsey Steele had 10 kills and 15 digs, and Erica Jepsen had 10 kills and seven blocks, hitting .333. Nique Fradella had 41 assists and 10 digs for her eighth double-double.

"I can't say enough about the job Lindsey did tonight," Portland State coach Michael Seemann said. "She filled a huge void with Marija being gone. She did a fantastic job of defending and anchoring our serve receive. She kept us in system, and by the end of the night she was taking some very aggressive swings.

"And Whitney, the easiest way for me to put it is that she just put us on her shoulders for a while. 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. She competed so hard tonight."

Portland State entered the match 0-15 all-time in Sacramento, including 0-13 in Big Sky regular-season matches.

Sacramento State finished the season 6-15, 6-9 in the Big Sky. The Hornets will miss the conference tournament for the first time in history, but this is also the first year that the tourney will have four teams instead of six.

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