2013 Portland State Volleyball Schedule (PDF)

PORTLAND – Three home tournaments, including the Big Sky Championship Tournament, highlight the Portland State volleyball 2013 schedule as announced by seventh-year Head Coach Michael Seemann. The Vikings will play 16 of their 30 scheduled matches at home, the most since 1992.

The Vikings lost seniors Megan Ellis and Dominika Kristinikova to graduation but return five starters, 10 letterwinners, and two Big Sky All-Conference first team selections in Garyn Schlatter and Jaklyn Wheeler.

The Vikings will begin their 2013 campaign by welcoming the University of Washington, Gonzaga, and Boise State to the Peter W. Stott Center Aug. 30-31 for the Northwest Challenge. It will be the sixth time that the Vikings have participated in the challenge and the second time they have hosted.

Portland State will play a midweek non-conference match with the reigning national runner-up University of Oregon Tuesday, Sept. 3 at Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene, Ore.

PSU will then return to the Stott Center to host its second tournament of the season when it welcomes BYU, Oklahoma, and Pacific Sept. 6-7. The Vikings faced-off with BYU and Pacific in 2012; it will be their first meeting with Oklahoma.

“We haven't hosted a tournament in a while, so having two weekends in a row at home is fantastic for us,” Seemann said. “The quality of teams that are coming in and the opportunity to play them at home is huge. The Northwest Challenge is always a good barometer because we see those teams every year.”

The Vikings wrap up the non-conference portion of their schedule by heading to Hawaii for a three-day tournament Sept. 12-14. They will match up with host Hawai'i, Arizona, and Northwestern.

“It's a great experience for Kaeli Patton and Shelbi Miyashiro to be back home and play in front of their families in Hawaii,” Seemann added.

Portland State will have 10 non-conference matches to start the season. Five of those 10 matches will be against NCAA Tournament teams from a year ago. They will also include a trio of games against Pacific-12 Conference opponents.

The Vikings will open the 2013 Big Sky Conference regular season with a four-match home stand. They begin conference play with Sacramento State (9/21) and Eastern Washington (9/23). Montana (9/27) and Montana State (9/28) will come to the Stott Center the following weekend.

“Sacramento State is always an enigma,” Seemann said. “Last year we limped out of there with a win to start conference play, and it ended up being a catalyst for our season. Being able to see them at home first and early in our season will allow us to know what we're up against before we go there. It is also nice to start the two main parts of our schedule, non-conference and then conference, at home.”

Portland State will hit the road for four-matches against Northern Arizona (10/3), Southern Utah (10/5), Northern Colorado (10/10), and North Dakota (10/12).

The Vikings then close out the first half of conference play by hosting Idaho State (10/17) and Weber State (10/19). The teams will then do it all over again, this time switching home locations; the Vikings end the regular season on the road with Weber State and Idaho State.

Portland State earned the right to host the 2013 Big Sky Tournament Friday-Saturday Nov. 29-30 at the Stott Center by winning their regular season title in 2012.

“It gives us a lot of confidence throughout the conference season knowing we're going to be at home for the tournament,” Seemann said. “The way we scheduled two tournaments at home early in the season, we're building a good environment for packing out the Stott throughout the tournament. Knowing that if we earn a spot in the tournament we're going to be playing at home is a tremendous advantage.”