OGDEN, Utah – The Portland State volleyball team has been selected fifth in the 2017 Big Sky Volleyball Preseason Coaches' Poll the conference office announced Friday.
 
The Vikings went 9-7 in league play a year ago to finish sixth. They return 10 letterwinners, including five starters plus their libero from last year's squad but will have to replace their top scorer and All-Big Sky First Team selection Pati Anae.
 
Defending Big Sky regular and tournament champion North Dakota comes out on top of this year's preseason poll with 120 points and 10 of the possible 12 first place votes. Northern Colorado comes in second with 103 points and the other two first place votes.
 
Sacramento State (99 points) and Northern Arizona (96 points) come in third and fourth respectively ahead of Portland State (82 points).
 
Portland State has a potentially very favorable early Big Sky schedule as the Vikings open their conference slate with seven of their first eight matches at home. "Home" will be a relative word for the Vikings this season. They will be displaced off the Portland State campus in 2017 due to the construction of the Vikings Pavilion, which will be ready for the start of the 2018 season.
 
The Vikings will play all of their home games at Concordia University in North Portland. After opening league play at home against Idaho State and Weber State, the Vikings will play at Montana State. They then return home to take on each of the top four teams in the poll starting with Sacramento State on Sept. 30. Portland State will then face Northern Colorado, North Dakota, and Northern Arizona before finishing out a stretch of five-consecutive home matches against Southern Utah on Oct. 14.
 
Portland State plays seven of its final eight league matches on the road, with its final home match coming against Montana on Nov. 2.
 
The 2017 Big Sky Volleyball Championship will be held Nov. 16-18 at the home of the regular season champion.
 

Rank	School	Total Points (First Place Votes)
1.	North Dakota	120 (10)
2.	Northern Colorado	103 (2)
3.	Sacramento State	99
4.	Northern Arizona	96
5.	Portland State	82
6.	Idaho State	71
7	Idaho	63
8.	Weber State	49
9.	Eastern Washington	44
10.	Montana State	24
11.	Montana	21
12.	Southern Utah	20