Portland State’s volleyball team ran into a roadblock on its way to a Big Sky tournament championship ?” and its name is Eastern Washington.

The No. 3-seeded Eagles downed the second-seeded Vikings in the Big Sky volleyball tournament semifinals 3-1 (30-23, 26-30, 30-21, 34-32) on Friday night.

Eastern dominated the net, out-blocking Portland State by a hefty 14-6 margin and out hitting the Vikings .301-.211. Senior middle blocker Ashley Jensen led all players with eight blocks and added 14 kills to go with a .300 hitting percentage. Senior setter Christina Albers dimed out 50 assists to complement her five blocks, two of which were solo efforts.

“I don’t think we really blocked them well until the end of the match,” Eastern coach Wade Benson said. “But (Jensen and Albers) played really hard there at the end when they knew it was on the line.”

The Eagles thundered out to an early 10-1 lead in game one behind the tough serving of redshirt freshman Kerri Beck, who toed the line for seven service points and an ace to begin the frame. Beck and fellow freshman Addie Webster ?” this year’s Big Sky outstanding freshman ?” played big for the Eagles in the first game, combining for five kills on a .555 hitting percentage and an ace apiece.

Game two was marred early by rotation confusion; the lineup turned in by Portland State coach Jeff Mozzochi before the game didn’t match the one on the floor. The Vikings persevered, however and put together their best game of the match, hitting .333 en route to the 30-26 victory. Vikings junior outside hitter Jessica Brodie had seven of her match-high 23 kills in the second frame.

After taking the third game by a healthy 30-21 margin, the Eagles found themselves trailing the Vikings 29-24 in the fourth game. On Portland State’s fourth swing at match point at 29-28, Brodie got a set on the outside but her route was impeded by Jensen and Albers as the ball rested on the net before dropping into Brodie’s arms who dug it out and had another swing to force a fifth game. This time Albers and Jensen stuffed the ball sent it to an open gap on the floor.

“We were cheating on her a little bit toward the end because we knew she’d get the ball,” Jensen said. “Our adrenaline was high at that point and we just got up.”

“They camped out on me (toward the end of the match),” Brodie said. “I was being way too aggressive.”

On the next point Albers solo stuffed her counterpart Stephanie Lavigne to tie the match up.

“At that point we were thinking, ‘Why not end it in four?'” Albers said. “We had fought so hard in those first three games, we wanted to end it.”

The Vikings never recovered. The Eagles went on to claim a 34-32 victory on a Jessica Vanzant hitting error.

Eastern Washington reached the semifinal match by virtue of its four-game victory over No. 6 seed Weber State on Thursday night. Portland State earned a first-round bye after its best Big Sky finish in 11 years.

The Vikings and Eagles split their Big Sky regular season matches with each team winning on its home court. The most recent match-up was the regular season finale at Reese Court in Cheney, Wash., on Nov. 13, which the Eagles won in four games ?” Portland State swept Eastern Washington at the Stott Center in Portland, Ore., on Oct. 15.

Eastern Washington advances to play Sacramento State ?” which beat Montana State in Friday night’s second semifinal ?” on Saturday at 7 p.m. in the Hornets Nest. It will be the sixth-straight season the two teams have faced each other in the championship match. The Hornets have won the last three titles on the Eagles’ home floor and Eastern Washington won the last conference tournament contested in the Nest ?” as the No. 3 seed ?” back in 2001.