Portland State volleyball swept through the Rose City Showdown in mid-September, shaking off a tepid start to the season in its last string of games before the conference season began.
That tournament started a run of 10 wins in 11 matches, vaulting the Vikings among the top contenders in the Big Sky with a month left in the regular season.
The stretch includes the Viks’ first 0-2 comeback in five seasons, their first weekend sweep on a conference road trip since 2017, their first win in Bozeman since 2017 and their first win in Missoula since 2016, which collectively is their first conference sweep in Montana since 2013, three Big Sky defensive player of the week awards and one offensive player of the week honor.
As a team the Vikings lead the Big Sky in assists, kills and digs per set and are holding opponents to the second fewest assists and kills and the third lowest overall hitting percentage.
Leading out of the back, reigning Big Sky libero of the year Ellie Snook is ninth in the nation in digs per set, getting under an average of 5.37 hits, her total number of digs also ranking in the top 12 in the nation.
While the Viks flew a little too close to the sun this week, falling 3-0 at Sac State to end a seven-match winning streak after lining up for their third road match in five days, the final stretch of the season provides a golden chance at securing a top seed in the conference tournament.
PSU hosts six of its last seven games at the Viking Pavilion, beginning with a pair of marquee matchups the next two Saturdays.
The Viks (7-2 Big Sky) welcome Northern Colorado (7-1) this weekend and defending conference champion Weber State (8-0) the next, with an opportunity to vault to the top of the standings.
“We're barely over the halfway point of the conference schedule, so we have a lot of growth still ahead of us,” Portland State head coach Michael Seemann said to GoViks.com.
“I like the way the remaining schedule allows us to be home for the remainder of the season. We have a good opportunity to get home, rest up, and play against another Big Sky opponent at home (second-place Northern Colorado at 2 p.m. on Saturday).”
BYE WEEK BONANZA
With the Vikings football team getting a deserved week of rest, the topic of Bruce Barnum’s weekly radio spot turned to one of Portland State’s earlier opponents.
Washington State coach Nick Rolovich was fired along with four of his assistant coaches on Monday for refusing to get a COVID vaccination, a mandate for state employees in Washington.
Oregon has a similar law, though Barnum emphasized his reason for getting vaccinated early.
Oregon’s exemption list is more lenient than Washington’s — and Barnum said a few players have received exemptions — but no staff appears to have been let go because of the mandate.
As far as the Wazzu gig is concerned, a few Big Sky names have come up in the conversation of potential candidates for the full-time job.
The Athletic mentioned former Montana State coach Jeff Choate, now the co-defensive coordinator at Texas. Choate was an assistant in Pullman under Mike Leach.
ESPN stayed a little more local with its recommendation, suggesting Eastern Washington coach Aaron Best among its top candidates. Best is 38-14 in five seasons in Cheney and heads one of the most explosive offenses in college football. While Best is clearly qualified, the Cougs may stay away after their last EWU hire, Paul Wulff, went 9-40 in Pullman from 2008-11.
Best and the No. 2 Eagles (7-0 overall, 4-0 Big Sky) host the top game in the Big Sky this week, welcoming Weber State (2-4, 1-2) to the red turf. The defending Big Sky champion Wildcats have had a rough go this season, falling out of the standings after losses to three top-10 teams at home. Maybe the road will be a more friendly environment for WSU, which has lost to No. 7 James Madison, No. 8 Montana State and No. 10 UC Davis by a combined 16 points.
Weber State has won the last two meetings and has only lost to the Eagles once under head coach Jay Hill, a 14-13 loss to No. 5 EWU in 2015 in Cheney.
The rest of the lineup has the potential for big upsets:
Saturday, Oct. 23
Idaho State (1-5, 1-3) at No. 8 Montana State (6-1, 4-0), Noon PT (ESPN+)
Weber State (2-4, 1-2) at No. 2 Eastern Washington (7-0, 4-0), 1 p.m. (ESPN+)
No. 11 Montana (4-2, 1-2) at Idaho (2-4, 1-2), 4:30 p.m. (ESPN+)
Northern Colorado (2-5, 1-3) at Southern Utah (1-6, 0-4), 5 p.m. (ESPN+)
No. 10 UC Davis (6-1, 3-1) at Cal Poly (1-5, 0-3), 5 p.m. (ESPN+)
Northern Arizona at No. 19 Sacramento State, 6 p.m. (ESPN+)
The start of basketball season is just three weeks away, and early indications hint at some optimism from outside of the Vikings program.
While the official Big Sky preseason polls won’t be released for a few weeks, the algorithms over at KenPom.com predict that the Portland State men will finish seventh in the conference, a strong number considering the turnover in the program over the last two years.
In addition to an almost entirely new coaching staff, the Viks brought in seven new players. This is just a year after mixing in 11 new players during a pandemic with no offseason or preseason practices.
The women’s team didn’t see as much turnover this offseason but did lose its three most experienced players to the transfer portal. One of those, four-year starting point guard Kylie Jimenez, has been voted as the preseason newcomer of the year in the Mountain West Conference:
Speaking of hoops, a former Vikings recruit has gotten a second chance at Georgia after a DUI arrest cost him his scholarship at PSU:
The men’s cross country team moved up to No. 9 in the West this week after demolishing the field at the Santa Clara Bronco Invitational.
There’s no competition for the men or the No. 12-ranked women this week as the prep for next weekend’s Big Sky championships.
The women’s soccer team narrowly lost 3-2 to first-place Weber State on the road this weekend, setting up a crucial final weekend of the season.
Sitting two points back of sixth place in the Big Sky, the Viks will need to pick up points when it hosts Northern Arizona and last-place Southern Utah in Hillsboro. The top six teams in the standings advance to the conference playoffs, held Nov. 3-7 in Greeley, Colorado.
The men’s and women’s tennis teams are off to ITA Northwest regional play this weekend, the men in Seattle at the Washington super regional and the women in the Bay Area for the Stanford regional.
The women’s golf team heads south for its final tournament of the fall, heading to Boulder City, Nevada for the Clash at Boulder Creek hosted by Northern Arizona.
Softball closes out its fall ball exhibition schedule this weekend with games against Corban (Ore.) and Edmonds (Wash.).
THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
Portland State quarterback June Jones, a transfer from Hawaii, bounced back from a second loss to his former school in as many seasons to thump visiting Humboldt State 56-20 at Civic Stadium on Oct. 23, 1976.
Jones would throw for 3,518 yards and complete 56% of his passes in his final season on the Park Blocks.
Thanks for reading another Big Sky Valhalla. Subscribe to the free newsletter for new content every Sunday and Wednesday.