PORTLAND, Ore. — If the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us anything, it's to unabashedly celebrate the good moments when they come. The Portland State volleyball team took that lesson and ran with it this season. Not just ran with it, sprinted. Faster, and with more charisma, than Usain Bolt. Well, maybe not that much, but certainly faster and more charismatic than the second fastest person in the world.
 
Whether it was chest bumps on the bench after aces, impromptu dance parties in the middle of matches, or water fights with the coaches after wins, the Vikings celebrated this season.
 
"I've never had a season like that [with all the celebrations]. I think they set a new standard as far as what we're expecting, you know what I mean [Laughs]. Not only what we're expecting as far as a result, but also expectations of enjoying wins and enjoying each other's success," Portland State head volleyball coach Michael Seemann said in reflecting on the season.
 
"Everybody who has been in the program now kind of expects that to some degree. Wins are wins and I think celebrating that stuff is key and goes along with the team that you're seeing on the floor, too."
 
And Seemann's team on the floor had plenty to celebrate this season. Among many accomplishments this season, the Vikings achieved the program's:
 

• First national postseason berth since 2010
• First victory in a national postseason tournament in Division I program history (3-2 over Pacific in the first round of the National Invitational Volleyball Championship)
• Most wins since 2017 (20)
• Best Big Sky record since 2013 (12-4)
• Best Big Sky road record since 2011 (6-2)
• Best start to Big Sky play since 2012 (7-1)
• Longest winning streak since 2013 (seven matches from Sept. 25 to Oct. 16)

 
Part of the Vikings' exuberance when celebrating those accomplishments this season stemmed from the fact that the Vikings faced tougher COVID restrictions than pretty much any other Big Sky Conference school during the 2020-21 academic year. State restrictions meant the Vikings only had a handful of six-on-six practices under their belts by the time they were playing counting conference matches for a rescheduled 2021 winter season. 
 
"The COVID year was more of a survival thing. This year was more of an actual season that we could prepare for," Seemann said.
 
COVID was still around for the Vikings this season, as it was for everyone, but they still had a relatively normal preseason that started in early August and continued up until the Vikings' first match of the season at Oregon on Aug. 27. 
 
"The biggest difference between the COVID year and this one was having the ability to hammer down some of our systems [during preseason]," Seeman said. "Just being able to implement structures and systems where the players could exist within them and develop that way, especially in terms of decision making and the development of connections between setters and hitters, and blockers and diggers, and all that sort of stuff, too.
 
"I felt so much more prepared even going in and playing Oregon in the first match, so much more prepared than last year."
 
Seemann and his staff used their preseason wisely, too, as they nailed down some of what would become the defining characteristics of the season in those first few weeks. The Viking coaches emphasized competition as early and as often as possible during fall camp in order to build cohesion within a team that never got a chance to develop cohesion last season due to the COVID restrictions they faced.
 
Seemann and his staff emphasized mini-games and six-on-six play over individual skill-based work, hoping to build those competitive bonds between teammates.
 
The emphasis bore out results early in the year, even as early as the Vikings' second match of the season against Santa Clara. Seemann pointed to that match as being an early indicator that he had a special group in this year's team.
 
"That Santa Clara match wasn't pretty. It wasn't like we just totally dominated them. That was a very, very good team that we just kind of hung around with," Seemann said of the match with the Broncos, which the Vikings won 3-1 despite dropping the opening set.
 
"I think our group just needed a little bit of belief that we could do it. That was the first time where I felt like, 'man, we're just kind of sticking around even though things aren't going all that great. We're hanging around this team.' And then we pushed in the 20s [of each set]. That match was almost a preview of almost every match of the season."
 
That win was the first of seven this season in which the Vikings came back after dropping the opening set. Those seven wins represented more than a third of the Vikings' 20 total wins, making comebacks an integral part of the team's DNA this season.
 
The Vikings also won a pair of matches when they faced a 2-1 deficit. The first such match came on the road against Montana on Oct. 14. The Vikings then repeated the feat against Sacramento State at the Big Sky tournament on Nov. 18, coming back to beat the Hornets – a team they lost to twice during the regular season – in five sets.
 
"There were just very, very decisive wins when it felt like we flipped the switch," Seemann said of his team's ability to comeback this season. "Against Idaho State [on Sept. 25], we started off with a loss [in the first set], but as soon as we started that second set and built a little lead, I was like, 'we're rolling. We're going to win these next three.' I just had that confidence in our team.
 
"A lot of that was how they approached points. It's a skill just like anything else, just like you teach passing or serving. I think we have to teach our players to just, mindset-wise, be able to play that single point at a time and not so much worry that we're down a set, or we're on the road, or we're losing this set, which I thought they just continued to get better and better at every single weekend."
 
In addition to the comebacks against Santa Clara and Idaho State, the Vikings also came back after dropping the opening set against Grand Canyon (Sept. 10), North Dakota State (Sept. 18), Northern Arizona (Oct. 9), Weber State (Oct. 30) and Pacific (Dec. 3). The Vikings went 0-2 down against North Dakota State on Sept. 18, but came all the way back on the Bison to record the program's first reverse sweep since Sept. 8, 2016.
 
The Weber State comeback may have been the most impressive, though, as the Vikings shook off a 34-32 loss in the first set to win the next three sets in a row. The victory capped an 8-1 October for the Vikings, and put them into a tie with Weber for first in the Big Sky standings.
 
The Vikings also played a similar match against Pacific (Calif.) in the first round of the National Invitational Volleyball Championship on Dec. 3. The Vikings led by as many as nine points in the first set, but somehow lost it, 28-26. Still, the Vikings didn't let that bother them, as they dominated the next two sets as well as the fifth set to earn the program's first win in a Division I national postseason tournament.
 
Serving played a big role in both wins. The Vikings out-aced the Wildcats, 11-to-9 in their match on Oct. 30, which was an impressive feat considering Weber State came into the match ranked third in the nation in aces per set.
 
The Vikings then set a season high with 17 aces against Pacific (Calif.) on Dec. 3, a total that was one off the program's single-match record that was set 32 years ago in 1989.
 
"Our goal is to strike the ball the same in all conditions. That means practice, game, game point, first serve, last serve, whatever," Seemann said of his team's approach to serving.
 
"I think that contributes to those gut-check moments of 24-24. They're going back there and they're going, 'I don't just have to get this in. I don't have to hit this harder than normal. I'm just going to trust what I do.' And I think that allowed us to be in those points in a lot of those big moments."
 
Ellie Snook led the Vikings with 50 aces during the season, surpassing the record for the 25-point scoring format that Kaeli Patton originally set with 46 aces in 2012. Snook also broke Patton's record for aces per set, as she averaged 0.42 per set this season, good for third in the Big Sky and 39th in the nation.
 
It wasn't just Snook, though. The Vikings, as a team, finished with 187 aces for their highest total since they had 204 in 2013. Besides Snook, five other players finished with at least 20 aces during the season in Parker Webb (36), Zoe McBride (33), Makayla Lewis (29), Ashleigh Barto (22) and Ally Wada (21).
 
"I think the style of serving is really what I appreciated," Seemann said. "Because you had Zoe who backed up and just hit it. Not as accurate, but also did a lot more movement. But then we had someone like Ellie who was very pinpoint. She was very accurate. We could pick on, not only a certain passer, but a certain side of her body that we had identified as a weakness."
 
Webb's serving keyed one of the Vikings' major formational changes, which highlighted another one of the team's strengths: its versatility. Seemann said he didn't want to lose Webb's serving when the team started to play a 6-2 formation during the second week of the Big Sky schedule. So, the team started to play without a setter on the floor when Webb would serve, even as that left Webb to set, which she had never done before in her Viking career. The redshirt senior got better and better at it throughout the season, though, and she rewarded Seemann's confidence in her and her serving when she tied a career high with five aces in the Vikings' first-round win over Pacific (Calif.) at the NIVC tournament.
 
Besides Webb's transformation into a sometime-setter, the Vikings also showed their versatility in alternating between a 5-1 and a 6-2 formation within a given weekend or even in a given match.
 
"We definitely strove for versatility, especially with our outside hitters, because we knew we had so much depth there," Seemann said. "We knew we had so much depth at that pin position that it would be favorable to be in the 6-2. And regardless of that, even just the training components of it, we knew we were going to have two very good teams going at each other."
 
In the end, a sign of the Vikings' depth came in the fact that 10 different players appeared in at least 50 different sets during the season. Teniyah Leuluai and Maddy Reeb would alternate with Wada and Webb in the 6-2 formation, but Gabby Hollins would also come in at times for McBride, or even Lewis at the beginning of the season.
 
"That outside hitter position, especially early, was so close, so tight. Everybody had some advantages in various categories: passing, defense, blocking, attacking, serving, all those things," Seemann said of the team's depth.
 
"For us, I thought that contributed to having such a competitive gym. And I think as the season went on, we just got more and more confident in those systems to the point where I thought Teniyah and Maddy [Reeb] were at the top of their game and their connection was very good, and that became then a very valuable piece to where we could put them in and trust [the 6-2]."
 
The 6-2 had a strong debut in the Vikings' 3-0 win at Idaho on Sept. 30. The Vikings hit .398 against the Vandals for their best hitting percentage in a match since they hit .432 against Montana State five years earlier. Another highlight came when Leuluai and Wada both finished with double-doubles in the Vikings' 3-1 win over Weber State on Oct. 30. The Vikings outhit the Wildcats .211-to-.076 in that match, with the .076 representing a new season low for Weber State at the time.
 
But really, the offense hummed no matter whether the Vikings were in the 6-2, or reverted back to the 5-1.
 
Lewis led the way offensively with 3.22 kills per set, ranking her sixth in the Big Sky Conference. Lewis was playing her first season with the Vikings after transferring from San Jose State, and earned the honor of being the Big Sky Conference's Top Newcomer, as well as an All-Big Sky First Team selection, with her strong hitting. Webb joined Lewis on the All-Big Sky First Team, an honor she received after ranking ninth in the Big Sky with 3.05 kills per set. Wada made the All-Big Sky Second Team while leading the Vikings with 17 double-doubles throughout the year.
 
Lewis and McBride also gave the Vikings depth defensively, as they combined with Snook as the team's three primary passers. Seemann could shift them around depending on who was passing the best in a given match, though Snook always remained the top option.
 
Snook repeated as the Big Sky's Libero of the Year while also making the All-Big Sky First Team this season. Snook earned the postseason accolades after leading the Big Sky in digs per set throughout the season, while finishing at 5.14 d/s.
 
Additionally, Barto and Genevieve Florig gave the Vikings a solid 1-2 punch at the net. Both players averaged over 1.00 blocks per set in conference matches, and both also finished the season ranked in the top 10 of the Big Sky in the category. Florig finished the year ranked second in the conference with 1.10 blocks per set, while Barto ranked 10th with 0.96 b/s. 
 
"Our depth was an advantage that we had over everybody else. Weber, you know who's coming at you. And they're good, but you know where it's coming from. Very rarely did you see teams with as much versatility as us and still win. I think that's the key, we could put different people in and still have them produce."
 
The depth also proved beneficial when one of the Vikings would need to reset during a match. Seemann could sub them off and not see a drop off in play, while that player could observe from the bench to gain a different perspective on the match.
 
And not only would the subbed-out player get to see the match differently, they were also suddenly admitted to the best party in downtown Portland this fall, which was happening on the Vikings' bench every night.
 
"The bench was so active and into these points that you would be foolish to let yourself drown in your own sorrow," Seemann said. "You had to be hooked in and get excited about what was going on out on the court, which I think helps a lot. Because then when you go back in, you're charged again. You reset in a good way, not in a way where you isolate yourself. I thought that was a tribute to people who weren't on the floor."
 
And that energy even took Seemann by surprise.
 
"We knew Lily [Snook] was a character. But I didn't think it was going to be her and Teniyah and even Sydney [Rabe] and anybody who wasn't on the court. I did not predict that at all. But that gave us a brand of volleyball that I would never think to ask of them just due to my style of coaching."
 
Now that Seemann has seen it, though, he's hooked. It's the same energy he saw in the locker room as the Vikings celebrated wins like they haven't been able to since the start of the pandemic.
 
"There were people who I didn't even know who said, 'your team just made me a volleyball fan. We're hooked,'" Seemann said.
 
"That's what I told our team after we lost to Weber [in the second round of the NIVC tournament, ending the season]. I was like, 'on a large scale, you brought a brand of volleyball to the Park Blocks and to this school that is awesome. People love it.' It truly is an entertainment package. It's because we're good, too, but also because it's a fun environment to be in.
 
"Not all the teams like that, but that's fine [Laughs]."
 
So, just as the pandemic taught us, the Vikings will continue to unabashedly relish the good moments whenever they can. As we all should.