PORTLAND, Ore. - Last Friday, Portland State won its second regular season title and will play host to the Big Sky Championship Nov. 6-8. The first semifinal match starts Friday at 1:30 p.m., with Idaho State taking on Eastern Washington, followed by Northern Arizona taking on the Vikings at 4 p.m. The championship match will start at 11 a.m., Sunday morning. All matches will be played at PCC - Rock Creek and are free to the public.
PSU finished the regular season at Sacramento State Oct. 30, controlling its own championship destiny. With a victory, the Viks would win the title. A loss would place the Vikings in second place and a tie would force Portland State to cheer for a Northern Colorado upset or tie against Northern Arizona.
The Vikings battled with the Hornets for 90 scoreless minutes in regulation and another 20 minutes in overtime. When the dust settled, both Portland State and Sacramento State were still standing in a 0-0 deadlock.
Portland State still sat in first-place, but an NAU victory would give the Lumberjacks the Big Sky title.
With the Vikings match ending around 2 p.m., the team would board a plane back to the Rose City at about 7 p.m., an hour after the start of the NAU-UNC match.
At the half, Northern Colorado was up 1-0. Credit the power of mobile communications, as the Vikings Head Coach
Laura Schott searched her phone for any contacts that may have had the inside scoop.
Luckily for Schott she came upon a number of a friend who was at the match. Schott received the halftime score from the former assistant and before receiving the captains signal to turn off electronic devices, she read the Bears had a 3-0 advantage with 30 minutes to play in the match.
Via text messages with a Portland State staff member, Schott commented jokingly "if she's lying, I'll never trust anyone again."
Schott depended on the Vikings staff member in the rare chance the championship news may be reached in the air. She texted "(if you hear anything) sometimes
Toni (Carnovale) gets texts in the air."
When the team and the rest of the passengers boarded the flight, the captain had announced that the Vikings were in first-place in the conference and waiting to here if they had won the title. "Everyone on the plane started clapping for us after the captain announced it" said assistant coach
Melanie Langley.
Once the team arrived at Portland International Airport, the team anxiously turned on their phones waiting for any good news they may have received. "We didn't find out until we reached the terminal," added Langley, "some of the girls began to celebrate once we were off the plane."
Portland State now has the luxury of playing on its home pitch for the conference tournament without the angst of travel. Sacramento State wasn't so lucky however, as they finished Friday night in fourth and ended Saturday afternoon in fifth-place, out of the tournament with Idaho State's 4-0 triumph over Weber State.
Since the Big Sky started the postseason tournament format in 1997, the host team has advanced to the NCAA Tournament eight of 12 times.
Photo Credit: Steve Brenner
