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LOOKING AHEAD: The Vikings (5-6-0 overall, 1-0-0 Big Sky) go into the second week of Big Sky Conference play tied atop the Conference. The Vikings will head to Cheney Wash. on Friday, Oct. 7 to take on Eastern Washington (1-8-0, 0-1-0) as part of "The Dam Cup" and then will travel to Missoula, Mont. for a Sunday, Oct. 9 matchup with Montana (4-7-1, 1-0-0).

FOLLOW ALONG: Follow both matches online by clicking the live stats link on www.goviks.com.

SCOUTING EASTERN WASHINGTON: The Eagles come into Friday's match with a 1-8-0 overall record and are 0-1-0 in conference play. Eastern Washington's lone win of the season came on Sept. 16 in a 4-0 home win over Evergreen State. Cassie Black leads the team in goals with five on the season. The Eagles have played two keepers and have given up 20 goals in 810 minutes this season.

SCOUTING MONTANA: The Grizzlies come into Sunday's match in Missoula as the Big Sky Conference's top-scoring team with 19 goals this season. Montana's top-player, Erin Craig, leads the conference in shots (39), points (19) and goals (9). The only major offensive category that Craig does not lead the conference in is assist, which her teammate India Watne leads with seven. Watne has assisted on four of Craig's goals this season. Montana may be the conference's top-scoring team, but they have given up the second most goals of any conference team this season with 28.

Kendra McMillen and Kristen Hoon have both played significant minutes in goal for the Grizzlies with Hoon getting the start in the last two games. Hoon has given up nine goals this season while McMillen has given up 19. They have combined for 61 saves this season.

LAST TIME OUT: Megan Martin scored her first career hat-trick in a 3-2 victory over Sacramento State to open conference play. The Vikings have now won their last six conference openers dating back to 2006 and are unbeaten in conference openers going back to 2002 (8-0-2). Martin's three goals gave the Vikings their season-high mark for goals in a single game.

MARTIN'S HAT-TRICK: With her hat-trick of goals against Sacramento State (9/30), junior Megan Martin became the seventh player in Portland State history to score three goals in a single match. The last Viking to record the feat was Jamie Blakesley at UC Riverside on Sept. 21, 2003.

PLAYERS OF THE WEEK: Forward Megan Martin's first career hat-trick and keeper Lainey Hulsizer's career-high 14 saves earned them Big Sky Conference Offensive and Defensive Player of the Week honors respectively for matches played from Sept. 26 - Oct. 2.

Junior transfer goalkeeper Melissa Ferguson was named the Big Sky Conference Defensive Player of the Week for the week of Aug. 29 through Sept. 4. She went a perfect 2-0 at the Wolf Pack Invitational posting shutout wins against Nevada and Detroit Mercy. Ferguson tallied eight saves over the weekend.

Amanda Dutra and Esty Geiger were named the Big Sky Conference Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week respectively for the week of Aug. 22-28.  It was the second honor for Dutra and the first for Geiger. Dutra recorded a goal and an assist over the weekend while Geiger played all 107-plus minutes and recorded an assist.

The Vikings have racked up a total of five weekly honors this season.

TWIN KILLING:  The match at Nevada on Sept. 2 marked the first time junior twins Carlie and Megan Martin have scored goals in the same game playing for Portland State. It is only the second time in their soccer careers that they have scored in the same game, the only other time was in high school playing for Oregon City. Megan Martin scored first with Carlie Martin scoring exactly two minutes and 20 seconds later.

SCHOTTING THE BREEZE: With the 3-2 victory over conference rival Sacramento State last Friday, fourth year head coach Laura Schott recorded her 29th career win at Portland State moving her into a tie with Bernie Fagan (1993-96) and Tara Erickson (2001-2004) for the most wins all-time at Portland State. Schott looks to become the Portland State all-time leader in wins this weekend.

INJURY BUG: Sophomore Eryn Brown will be out the rest of the year after suffering a season-ending knee injury in an exhibition game against Miami (Fla.) on Aug. 14. Also out of for the season is senior midfielder Amanda Howie who suffered a foot injury.

BIG SKY SUPERIORITY: The Vikings have been among the Big Sky Conference's elite the last three years, winning the regular season in 2009 and finishing as the runner-up in both 2008 and 2010.

KEEPING IT LOCAL ON THE PARK BLOCKS: Since taking over in 2008, Schott has increased the number of locals on the Vikings squad. As the number of Oregonians increases, so have the number of wins.

In 2008 there were four Oregonians on the squad that ended the season 5-11-4. In 2009 the win total increased to 10 wins with 10 Oregonians on the team. In 2010 the number of Oregonians increased to 11 and the team won nine games and a school best five games in conference play.

DOUBLE-TROUBLE: Portland State has two sets of twins on the 2011 roster in Carlie and Megan Martin and Kayla and Kelsey Henningsen.

PRESEASON COACHES' POLL: The Vikings were selected fourth in the 2011 Big Sky coaches' poll. Exceeding the expectations has been the Portland State motto under head coach Laura Schott. Portland State was picked to finish fifth in 2008 and 2009, but went on to finish second and first, respectively. The Vikings were then picked third in last year's preseason poll but went on to take second in the conference.

THE SHORTEST IN YEARS: Though Portland State has played two exhibitions in August, one against Concordia (Ore.) Aug. 10 and another against Miami (Fla.) Aug. 14 at Hillsboro Stadium, the Vikings will only play 17 regular-season games, the team's shortest regular-season schedule since 1995.

Portland State was in its last year as a Division II Independent and would go on to finish 9-5-2, before joining the Big Sky the following year. Millette DeSpain led the team with 12 goals and nine assists that year.

THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME: Once again, Vikings call Hillsboro Stadium home after playing seven-of-eight home contests at the facility last season. In 2011, Portland State will have seven regular season contests and one preseason match at the stadium.

THE PARK BLOCKS WORLD CUP CREDIBILITY: Freshman Daniela Solis, a three-time all-state selection at Sherwood High School, represented Mexico at the U17 Girls World Cup in 2010, hosted by Trinidad and Tobago. Solis made three appearances, two starts, and tallied the game-winning goal against the Republic of South Africa.

NEXT UP: Following this weekend's competition on the road, the Vikings return home for a three-game home stand starting Friday, Oct. 14 against Northern Colorado.