PORTLAND, Ore.-- First-place Portland State remained undefeated in Big Sky Conference play with a 25-11, 25-23, 26-24 win over North Dakota Saturday afternoon. PSU now takes a full one-game lead over Idaho State in the league standings.
"Give PSU credit for being a good team but we made some costly mistakes down the stretch in sets two and three," UND head coach Ashley Hardee said. "Our defense kept us in the match and that's a great sign entering the second half of our season."
North Dakota (8-10, 4-4 BSC) led 3-1 very early in the opening set, but it would be short-lived as the Vikings piled-up seven straight points and later had a 14-4 stretch to run away with a 25-11 win in set one. PSU (12-7, 8-0) hit .520 in the first set and looked to be in cruise control.
UND battled back in the second set as the Kelly Green turned an 11-7 deficit into a 17-all tie, forcing six ties in that set alone. PSU was able to hang-on for a 25-23 win to take a 2-0 lead in the match.
The third set was even more tightly contested. An 8-1 Viking run helped dig them out from under a four-point deficit early, eventually knotting the score at 17 apiece. From there, the score would be re-tied four more times until a service error and an attack error produced the winning points for the home team.
UND was led by Lexi Robinson's 10 kills and 16 digs, producing her 10th double-double performance of the season. PSU's Jaklyn Wheeler recorded a match-high 11 finishes for the Vikings.
UND now prepares for its final non-conference match-up Tuesday, a road tilt at in-state rival North Dakota State. First serve with the Bison is set for 7:00 p.m. with the match being carried live on KKXL-AM 1440 and WDAY-AM 970.
