With the victory, Portland State snapped a 23-match losing streak against the Hornets dating back to the 1988 season. The Vikings, who never trailed in the fifth game, had lost each of their first two Big Sky matches in five games before tonight’s victory. PSU improved to 11-5 overall and 1-2 in the conference.

Sacramento State, which had won four straight and nine of 10, dropped to 10-7 overall and 2-1 in the conference. The Hornets squeaked out a five-game victory in Portland last year, but could not duplicate the feat this season. Sacramento State had won three-straight matches on the road.

In the fifth game, the Hornets fought back from a 13-10 deficit to eventually tie the match at 15-15 on Atlee Hubbard’s career-high 24th kill. However, Brodie connected on her 19th kill to move PSU ahead, 16-15, and Vanzant blocked Hubbard’s attempt to end the match at 17-15. Vanzant (26 kills) and Brodie (19 kills, 22 digs) combined for 45 of Portland State’s 75 kills.

Sacramento State, which dropped the first two games of the match and trailed, 19-13, in the third game before clawing its way back into the contest, hit just .189, the team’s lowest hitting percentage since falling to Louisville on Sept. 17.

The Hornets limited Portland State to a .149 hitting percentage, but had 10 less kills (75-65) and digs (97-87) than the Vikings. In addition, Sacramento State committed 13 service errors, including two critical errors late in the fifth game.

Hubbard posted career highs in both kills and digs (23) as the junior has now combined for 91 kills in her last five matches. Junior Shannon Arts posted a career-high 16 kills and a team-best .424 hitting percentage (16-2-33) as the right-side hitter has now hit at least .400 in three-consecutive matches.

The Hornets, who are currently one of just two teams to rank among the nation’s top 20 in both digs and blocks, had 17.0 team blocks, including nine from Lindsay Haupt and seven each from both Michelle Franz and Natalie Melcher. Haupt also had nine kills to go along with her nine blocks. Sophomore Jennifer Ferguson tallied 13 kills and a career-high 23 digs and junior Kristin Lutes added 19 digs.

Sacramento State failed to hit anything better than .229 in each of the five games, including a .182 mark in the fifth game. Conversely, Portland State hit .318 and had just three errors in 22 attempts during the fifth game.

Sacramento State returns to action tomorrow (Saturday, Oct. 1) as the team travels to rival Eastern Washington for a 7 p.m. match. Either Sacramento State or Eastern Washington has won the conference’s regular-season title each of the last eight years. The Hornets have defeated Eastern Washington in Cheney, Wash., in the Big Sky Tournament championship match three-consecutive years.