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THIS WEEK: The season is finally hear for the 2017 Portland State volleyball team. The Vikings open the season on the road at the Aztec Invitational hosted by San Diego State Aug. 25-26. Portland State opens the regular season with the CSUN Matadors on Friday starting at 5 p.m. PT. The Vikings take on host San Diego State Saturday morning at 11:30 a.m. before concluding play against Eastern Kentucky later in the day at 5 p.m. 

LIVE VIDEO: A live video stream will be available for the first two matches of the weekend against CSUN and San Diego State. Links can be found on the volleyball schedule page on GoViks.com. 

LIVE STATS: Every match this week will feature live stats. Links can be found on the Volleyball schedule page on GoViks.com.

FOLLOW THE VIKINGS: Fans can follow the Vikings on Twitter. Follow @ViksVB for all the latest news, notes, and behind the scenes photos. Follow @PSU_Vikings for the latest on all 15 Portland State Athletics programs. 

QUICK HITS FOR 2017
• Portland State returns five starters, plus its libero, from last year's squad that went 17-12 overall and 9-7 in Big Sky Conference play. 
• Portland State went 8-3 at home, including a 6-2 Big Sky home record last season. 
• Portland State went 7-3 in three-set matches, 7-7 in four-set matches, and 3-2 in five setters. 
• Portland State went 15-4 when winning the opening set and 13-0 when winning the first two sets. The Vikings went 2-7 when dropping the opening frame and 1-5 when dropping the first two.
• Portland State will play seven of its first eight Big Sky matches at home. Conversely, the Vikings will play seven of their final eight on the road. 
• Portland State has 17 players on the 2017 roster, the largest under 11th-year Head Coach Michael Seemann.
• Portland State will play all eight of its home matches at Concordia University due to the on-going construction of the new Viking Pavilion at the Peter W. Stott Center.  

CSUN QUICK HITS
• The Matadors went 11-17 overall and finished tied for fifth with a 7-9 record in Big West play. 
• Head Coach Jeff Stork is entering his 16th season at CSUN and is 206-231 over his tenure. 
• CSUN returns five starters, plus its libero. The Matadors return 11 letterwinners, lost two letterwinners, and adds three newcomers in 2017. 
• Aeryn Owens returns for her junior season after tallying 375 kills (3.57 kills per set) a year ago. She was a All-Big West First Team selection

SAN DIEGO STATE QUICK HITS
• San Diego State went 17-15 overall and finished sixth in the Mountain West at 9-9. 
• The Aztecs return four starters, including their libero. They return nine letterwinners, three redshirts, and add four incoming freshmen. 
• Head Coach Deitre Collins-Parker is 130-122 over eight years at San Diego State. 
• The Aztecs were selected to finish third in the Mountain West. 
• Junior Alexandra Psoma leads all returners with 3.27 kills per set a year ago. 

EASTERN KENTUCKY QUICK HITS
• The Colonels went 15-15 overall and finished 9-7 in Ohio Valley Conference play. 
• Head Coach Lori Duncan is 254-327 over 19 seasons leading Eastern Kentucky. 
• Eastern Kentucky returns 11 letterwinners and adds three newcomers this season. 
• Senior OH Nikki Drost led the team with 368 kills, while tallying 288 digs and 28 aces en route to being named All-OVC First team. 

SEASON PREVIEW
The 2017 season will bring a unique set of challenges for 11th-year Head Coach Michael Seemann and the Portland State volleyball team but it is nothing they cannot handle and are not embracing with open arms.

Portland State will play just eight home matches this season and all eight will be played off campus due to the construction of the Vikings Pavilion at the Peter W. Stott Center. There have already been several milestones reached during the $50 million renovation.

The first project completed was the new strength and conditioning center in the spring of 2016. The new practice gym (where the old main gym used to stand) opened at the beginning of August. There will be several more milestones along the way (new staff and administration offices, a new sports medicine suite, etc.) but the new arena will not be ready until late March of 2018.

With no main gym to speak of, the volleyball program will temporarily move its home court to North Portland and onto the campus of Concordia University for all eight of its home matches this season.

"Everyone at Concordia has been great," Seemann said. "That crew over there is ready for us. They've made us feel welcome which is great. I'm not going to complain about any commutes because we have several programs in this department that do it regularly. That does present a new challenge for us but one we're willing to accept. The fact that we're able to go over to practice and compete on home weeks will help a lot."

Beyond the move off campus for competition, another big hurdle stands before Seemann and his staff: the integration of seven newcomers into a 17-player roster, the largest of Seemann's tenure. The large roster size makes Portland State the deepest it has ever been.  

The Vikings will suit up seven outside hitters, four middle blockers, four defensive specialists, and can go three deep at the setter position. That depth creates a lot of competition in the gym and a lot of tough decisions for Seemann.

"This is the largest roster we've ever had," Seemann said. "We had 15 one year and I think I said, 'I'm never doing that again.' We are as deep as we've ever been in every position. I'm excited about the depth and the quality of the gym overall. The thing that unsettles me, I mean that in the best way possible, is that I can't really pencil in more than one or two starters.

Along with depth, the Vikings have experience on the roster in 2017. After a pair of seasons with rosters made up of predominately underclassmen, three seniors and six juniors anchor this season's squad. Portland State returns 10 letterwinners from a year ago, while adding seven newcomers. The Vikings return five starters, including their libero, but will have to replace All-Big Sky first team selection Pati Anae. Anae led the league with 4.26 kills per set a year ago.

Where the Vikings replace that production is another challenge that will make the 2017 so exciting to watch unfold.
 
THE SCHEDULE
Portland State opens the season with an exhibition match against Concordia on August 22 at 6 p.m. The Vikings then open their regular season slate with three matches at the Aztec Invitational hosted by San Diego State. Their first match of the season will be Friday, August 25 against the CSUN Matadors beginning at 5 p.m. PT. PSU will face host San Diego State and Eastern Kentucky on April 26 at 11:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. respectively.

The following weekend the Vikings head to Spokane, Wash. where they will take on Nevada, Arizona State, and host Gonzaga September 1-2.

Portland State's third trip of the season will feature three matches at the UC Davis Invitational September 8-9. The Vikings will take on UC Davis to open the invitational before facing Santa Clara and Boise State.

PSU won't have to travel too far from home for their final three non-conference matches of the regular season. They will face the University of Portland on Wednesday, Sept. 13 before taking on CSUN for the second time along with UTEP, both as part of the Nike Invitational hosted by the Pilots.

"We have a very balanced non-conference schedule, playing a nice sample of teams from traditionally strong conferences," Seemann added. "We knew we were traveling more than any other year, so staying regionally, and reducing the time spent in the air, or in a van, was part of our strategy."

After spending the first four weeks of the season on the road, the Vikings open their Big Sky slate with seven of their first eight contests at home (Portland State began its 2016 season with six of its first eight league matches on the road).

With the move to Concordia for the season, the Vikings have had to move around a few match times away from their traditional 7 p.m. start. Portland State hosts Idaho State to open league play on Thursday, September 21 at 8 p.m. followed by Weber State on Saturday, September 23 at 7 p.m.

After heading to Bozeman, Mont. to take on Montana State on Thursday, September 28, the Vikings will be back home for five-straight matches against Sacramento State (Sept. 30 at 7 p.m.), Northern Colorado (Oct. 5 at 8 p.m.), North Dakota (Oct. 7 at 7 p.m.), Northern Arizona (Oct. 12 at 8 p.m.), and finally Southern Utah (Oct. 14 at 2 p.m.).

The October 7 match against the North Dakota Fighting Hawks will be the final Big Sky Conference match up between the two schools, as UND will be leaving the conference at the conclusion of the 2017-18 academic year.

Portland State opens the second half of its season with fourth road matches at Eastern Washington, Idaho, Southern Utah, and Northern Arizona. After a home match against Montana on November 2 at 8 p.m., the Vikings conclude league play with matches at Sacramento State, Weber State, and Idaho State.

The eight-team Big Sky Volleyball tournament will be held November 16-18 at the home of the regular season champion

ROSTER BREAKDOWN
Three things come to mind when looking at the 2017 Portland State volleyball team: its 17-player roster, its depth, and its experience.

The 17-player roster is the largest under Seemann and it is without a doubt the deepest. The Vikings go seven deep at the outside hitter position including a pair of lefty right-side hitters. They are four deep at both the middle blocker and defensive specialist positions and can go three deep at setter.

With its depth, there is also experience. Portland State is anchored by three seniors: Erin Clark, Kylie Copple, and Tasha Bojanic. Both Clark and Bojanic have been key players for the Vikings since stepping onto the Park Blocks prior to the 2014 season. Six juniors round out the upperclassmen with all six capable of making substantial impacts this season.

Seemann bolstered his sophomore class by bringing in a trio of transfers, while adding four freshmen into the mix.

Seemann, and his staff made up of Eric Liebbrandt and first-year Assistant Coach Tara Hittle, will have a tough time narrowing down the roster into an opening day starting lineup. 

OUTSIDE HITTERS
A deep outside hitting corps got even deeper this year with the addition of two transfers and a freshman into the mix. The biggest question mark heading into the season for the Portland State outsides is who is going to step up and fill the hole left by 2016 All-Big Sky Conference First Team selection Pati Anae? Anae led the Vikings, and the Big Sky with 4.26 kills and 4.84 points per set. 

Caitlin Bettenay, a 5-foot-11 sophomore from Queensland, Australia, averaged 2.55 kills per set in her first year on the Park Blocks. She tallied 12 double-digit kill performances and was one of the most consistent outsides for the Vikings coming down the stretch a year ago. She is making the transition back onto the indoor court after representing her home country on the sand courts over the summer at the 2017 FIVB Beach Volleyball U21 Would Championships in Nanjing, China.

Sarah Brennan, a 6-foot-3 junior from Kirkland, Wash., had a breakout year as a sophomore in 2016. After seeing limited action as a freshman, she played in 61 sets over 18 matches and averaged 2.28 kills per set, while hitting .204 from the outside. 
Jenna Mullen, a 6-foot-1 junior from Puyallup, Wash., averaged 2.28 kills per set a year ago after being named the Big Sky Freshman of the Year in 2015. She has one of the more powerful arms on the outside and has been coming into her own throughout fall camp. 

Copple, who transferred to the Park Blocks as a setter prior to the 2015 season, started the transition to the outside towards the end of last season, giving the Vikings added depth on the right side. She made seven starts as an outside a year ago, averaging 2.20 kills per set over that stretch.

In addition to the four returning outsides, the Vikings add sophomore transfers Brooke Imirie and Toni McDougald and freshman Parker Webb. Imirie (pronounced Em-ry) spent two years, one a redshirt season, at the University of Central Florida where she played just 13 sets over eight matches in 2016. 

Imirie and Webb, both left-handed right-side hitters, give the Vikings a left-handed attacking threat that they have not had since Aubrey Mitchell graduated in 2013. Webb, a freshman from Yakima, Wash., was a three-time first team all-conference selection at West Valley High School. 

McDougald, a 5-foot-11 sophomore from Denver, Colo., played her freshman season at Texas Tech where she played in 25 matches. She made 15 starts, seven in Big 12 play. She finished second on the team in both kills (187) and kills per set (2.17). She posted a season-high 13 kills, while hitting .444, against North Dakota last season for the Red Raiders. 

MIDDLE BLOCKERS
Two players that are going to see the court a lot this season are junior middle blockers Mikaelyn Sych and Katy Wilson. 

Sych, a 5-foot-10 junior from Airdrie, Alberta, Canada, stepped into a starting role last year after being plagued by an injury through much of her freshman season. She led the team with 94 blocks, while adding 123 kills (1.15 kills per set). She has one of the longest reaches of any of the middle blockers and has a knack for being in the right place at the right time. 

Wilson, a 5-foot-10 native of Highlands Ranch, Colo., had a tremendous season as a sophomore. She tallied 219 kills (1.97 kills per set) and hit .310 to lead all returning attackers. She was second on the team with 82 blocks and tallied 275.5 points, the most of any returner. 

Sophomore transfer Whitney Turner and freshman Delaney Smith bring added depth for the Vikings in the middle. Turner spent her last two years, along with Imirie, at Central Florida but is returning to the Portland Area where she lettered four years at Central Catholic. She led the Rams to the Oregon 6A Championship in 2015 as a senior. 

Smith, a 6-foot-3 middle blocker from Salem, Ore., brings a calm, cool, and collected influence to the lineup. She lettered three times at West Salem High School where she helped the Titans to a 25-4 overall record and the No. 2 seed in the 2017 Oregon 6A state tournament.

DEFENSIVE SPECIALISTS
Bojanic, a senior from Belgrade, Serbia, had a career year as the Vikings' libero in 2016. She finished the season fourth on PSU's all-time single-season digs list with 543. She surpassed the 1,100-career dig mark a year ago and enters the season sixth on PSU's Division I career digs list and 12th on the all-time list. Her 4.89 digs per set a year ago was third-best in the Big Sky. 

The Vikings have a pair of junior defensive specialists in Haley Glass and Hadley Heck who both contributed for the Vikings coming in and playing the back row. Glass, a Walnut Creek, Calif. native, tallied a career-high 15 digs three times a year ago. Heck added a career-high 15 kills of her own in 2016, tallying a trio of double-digit dig performances along the way. 

Freshman Ally Benedict, an Albany, Ore. native, is the new kid on the Park Blocks. She lettered all four years at West Albany High School where she was a two-time all-conference first team selection. She could push Bojanic for the staring libero position.

SETTERS
Clark is coming off her best season as a setter at Portland State. She surpassed the 1,000-assist mark for the first time a year ago tallying 1,044. She finished fifth in the Big Sky with 10.34 assists per set and added a career-high 2.63 digs per set. She had her best season at the net, tallying 35 total blocks (six solo, 29 assist).

Freshman setter Maddy Reeb could be another freshman who gives a senior a push. The Idaho Falls, Idaho native won back-to-back Idaho State Championships in 2014 and 2015 and finished as a runner up in 2016. She was a two-time All-State First Team setter and earned All-Conference First Team honors three times.