Oregon State
Portland State
McBride Leads Volleyball's Come From Behind Victory over the Vikings
August 31, 2010 | Women's Volleyball
Aug. 31, 2010
Portland, Ore. - Sophomore Megan McBride (Auburn, Wash.) earned her first career triple-double to boost the Oregon State volleyball team's (1-3) come from behind win to hand Portland State (2-1) its first loss of the season (21-25, 25-27, 25-15, 25-19, 15-13) on Tuesday evening.
"Hopefully this will start a trend for us," head coach Taras Liskevych said. "We needed this win badly. I thought we played well, should have won the second set but we hung in there and adjusted our block well against their hitters. Spectacular performance by Jill [Sawatzky]. Mona [Kressl] played well. Camille [Saxton] played well, and Megan [McBride] hit a great second ball."
McBride had a career night, hammering a career- best 10 kills, career-best tying 45 assists and digging up a personal best 19 balls. Senior Jill Sawatzky (St. Andrews, Manitoba) set a new season high for kills with 23, while adding five blocks.
As a team, the Beavers outmatched the Vikings in service aces (11-2) and blocks (13-3), while hitting a season high .298 with 66 kills.
Sawatzky seemed nearly unstoppable in the first set, hammering a team-high five kills on eight attempts, while Sambrailo earned a pair of blocks on the defensive side. But the Beavers were unable to top Portland State's 18 kills as the Vikings took the first set.
Portland State took the early lead in the second set putting together a four-point run early, causing the Beavers to burn their first timeout. But Oregon State battled back to within one at 13-14 to force the Vikings to talk things over. Portland State built its lead back up to five, hitting the 20-point mark first, but the Beavers battled back to push the set into extra points with Portland State earning back-to-back kills to make it a 2-0 lead.
Coming out of the long break, Kressl was the all-around player for the Beavers, earning two kills, two aces, two blocks and a dig to help the team cruise to an easy 25-15 win heading into the fourth set. Brown also put up two kills, an ace and a block to boost the team.
Portland State won the first point in the fourth set, but Oregon State took over after that. The Beavers built their lead to as many as nine at 21-12. Despite a late run by the Vikings to battle to within three at the 21-18 mark, Oregon State battled back with a service ace by Defoe and a Kressl kill to tie the match up to force a deciding set five.
In the final set, the Vikings got off to a quick, hot start to take a 2-0 lead. But Oregon State tied things up a number of times before taking the final lead after the 11 all tie. A block by Sawatzky and Eneliko followed by a Defoe overpass turned kill put the match away in favor of the Beavers.
Portland State's Whitney Phillips paced the offense with 22 kills, while libero Nicole Bateham dug a match-high 26 balls.
Oregon State returns home to host the Active Ankle Challenge on Friday, Sept. 3, at 7:00 p.m. against Florida Gulf Coast.
Oregon State Notes - Sophomore Megan McBride earned her first career triple-double of the season with a career-best tying 45 assists and a career-high 19 digs, setting a new career high for kills with 10 ... Freshman Mona Kressl set a new career best for aces with four ... Sophomore Camille Saxton set a new career best with 11 kills ... Senior Jill Sawatzky set a new season high for kills with 23; earned her second double-double of the season with 23 kills and 11 digs; she moves to 24th all-time for career block assists, 29th all-time for career total blocks and 15th all-time for total points ... Oregon State has at least seven service aces in every match so far this season; setting a new season best tonight with 11 ... Oregon State set a new season high for blocks with 13 ... Oregon State extends its winning streak over Portland State to six straight.
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