FIRST SERVE
Two tough opponents and a road environment proved a double whammy for the Portland State volleyball team last weekend. While the opponents might not get much easier, this weekend will at least see the Vikings return to Viking Pavilion for the first of two home tournaments over the next two weekends.
 
Make it a single whammy, then.
 
The Vikings will take that, as they host a pair of 6-0 teams in Grand Canyon and UTEP, as well as cross-town rival University of Portland, for the PDX Classic, Sept. 9-11, at Viking Pavilion.
 
The PDX Classic opens with a rivalry match between the Vikings and Pilots Thursday at 7 p.m.. The Vikings then follow with matches against Grand Canyon Friday at 6:30 p.m., and UTEP Saturday at 12:30 p.m. Portland, Grand Canyon and UTEP will also face each other in a series of neutral-site matches that start at 10:30 a.m. Friday and 10 a.m. Saturday.
 
The return home marks a chance for the Vikings to find their stride after some rough outings offensively to start the season. The Vikings have played well defensively at times, but have only hit above .150 once this season, which was in their win over Santa Clara on Aug. 28.
 
Parker Webb has led the Viking offense this season, as she ranks ninth in the Big Sky with 2.75 kills per set. Webb and Gabby Hollins tied for the team lead with eight kills against Long Beach State last Saturday, with Webb adding 10 digs and making the all-tournament team as a result.
 
Defense led the way in the Vikings' other match last weekend, as the Vikings held their own against a talented attack from No. 18 UCLA. The 18th-ranked Bruins only hit .185 against the Vikings, the lowest hitting percentage for a Viking opponent this season. Additionally, the Bruins' Mac May – a two-time Second-Team AVCA All-American – only had six kills on .235 hitting against the Vikings last Friday. Élan McCall – an All-Pac-12 selection last season – also only had four kills on .095 hitting against the Vikings.
 
Ellie Snook, the Big Sky Conference Libero of the Year last season, has led the Vikings' defensive efforts, as she's picked up where she left off following the team's 2021 winter season. Snook leads the Big Sky with 5.06 digs per set, an average that also ranks her 39th in the nation.
 
Genevieve Florig has also entered the Big Sky rankings with 0.94 blocks per set, an average that ranks her 10th in the conference this season. Florig had five blocks in the match against the Bruins, and totaled seven blocks across six sets played last weekend.
 
The Pilots promise to be a bellwether for the Vikings as far as how they may do in Big Sky Conference play later this season. The Pilots have already played three Big Sky teams this season, with wins over Idaho (3-0, Aug. 27) and Montana State (3-1, Sept. 3) to go with a 3-1 loss to Eastern Washington on Aug. 28.
 
Grand Canyon and UTEP, meanwhile, will both still be undefeated when they face each other Friday at 10:30 a.m. The Lopes swept their matches at the Idaho Volleyball Classic to open the season, the same tournament where the Pilots opened their season. Five of the Lopes' six wins so far this season have come in straight sets, with the one exception being a four-set win over Idaho at the Idaho Volleyball Classic.
 
UTEP already has a couple historic wins on its resume this season. The Miners beat Arizona in five sets on Sept. 3, giving the program its first win over a Power 5 school since 2005. UTEP also beat New Mexico State in five sets on Sept. 5, giving the Miners their first win in the series since 2012. 
 
The Miners faced the Lopes in an exhibition to open the season, with UTEP winning in four sets at home on Aug. 21.
 
The Vikings will have their hands full again this week, then, but at least those full hands will be playing at home. And Viking Pavilion takes a double whammy down to a single whammy, if nothing else.
 
MATCH #1: PORTLAND STATE (1-4) vs. PORTLAND (3-3)
LIVE STATS | LIVE VIDEO
DETAILS: Thursday, Sept. 9, 7 p.m. PT, Portland, Ore. (Viking Pavilion)
SCOUTING PORTLAND: The Portland Pilots promise to be a bellwether for the Vikings in regards to how they may do in the Big Sky Conference, as they've already played three Big Sky teams this season. The Pilots split their matches against Idaho (W, 3-0) and Eastern Washington (L, 1-3) while playing at the Idaho Volleyball Classic on the opening weekend of the season. The Pilots then beat Montana State, 3-1, at the Bobcats' home tournament last Friday. In between those matches, the Pilots also beat Nevada, 3-1, on Aug. 27, and lost in three sets to Utah State and Arkansas on Sept. 3 and 4, respectively. The Pilots went 2-14 last season while playing West Coast Conference teams only during their 2021 winter season. So far this season, Jayde Harris leads the Pilots with 3.05 kills per set, while Ryann Gregg ranks second behind her with 2.65 kills per set. The Pilots have been a particularly strong serving team so far, averaging 2.1 aces per set as a team. Four different individual players have at least seven aces so far this season between Noelani Helm (0.43 SA/s), Keilani Mumolo (0.38 SA/s), Paloma Bowman (0.33 SA/s) and Grace Zilbert (0.33 SA/s) leading the way. Helm and Bowman have split time at setter in the Pilots' system, with the pair averaging 5.29 and 5.14 assists per set, respectively. Gilbert, a junior libero also leads the Pilots with 3.48 digs per set.
ALL-TIME SERIES: The Vikings lead the all-time series between them and the Pilots, 35-20. Additionally, the Vikings have won three of their last four meetings, including their latest match on Sept. 21, 2019, when the Vikings beat the Pilots, 3-1, on the Pilots' home floor. That match was part of a home-and-home series that season, as the Pilots beat the Vikings, 3-1, on the Vikings' home floor two days earlier.
 
MATCH #2: PORTLAND STATE (1-4) vs. GRAND CANYON (6-0)
LIVE STATS | LIVE VIDEO
DETAILS: Friday, Sept. 10, 6:30 p.m. PT, Portland, Ore. (Viking Pavilion)
SCOUTING GRAND CANYON: The Grand Canyon Lopes, like the Portland Pilots, opened their season at the Idaho Volleyball Classic, hosted by the University of Idaho. The Lopes swept all their matches at the tournament, beating Eastern Washington and Nevada in straight sets, before beating the Vandals in four. The Lopes didn't drop a set in their home tournament this past weekend, as they swept Western Carolina, Rider and Villanova. Teagan DeFalco earned Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Defensive Player of the Week honors after averaging 5.78 digs per set last weekend at the Lopes' home tournament. DeFalco averages 4.95 digs per set for the season, while she anchors a GCU defense that leads the WAC and ranks 17th in the nation with an opponent hitting percentage of .115. The Lopes are no slouches on offense, either, as they lead the WAC and rank 52nd in the nation in hitting percentage (.260), and rank second in the WAC in kills per set (13.4). McKenzie Wise leads the Lopes with 3.95 kills per set, though three other players average at least 2.25 kills per set between Ashley Lifgren (2.50 k/s), Hannah Eskes (2.37 k/s) and Sydney Reed (2.29 k/s). Eskes, a preseason All-WAC selection, also leads the Lopes with 1.05 blocks per set, while Annabelle Kubinski and her rank 1-2 in the WAC in terms of hitting percentage (.413 and .400, respectively). The Lopes went 11-4 last season while only playing Western Athletic Conference opponents, and fell in the WAC tournament semifinals in four sets to Utah Valley.
ALL-TIME SERIES: The Vikings lead the all-time series between them and the Lopes, 4-0. The teams have only played once this century, however, as they beat the Lopes 3-0 at home on Sept. 5, 2015. The teams' three previous meetings were all in the 1992 and 1993 seasons.
 
MATCH #3: PORTLAND STATE (1-4) vs. UTEP (6-0)
LIVE STATS | LIVE VIDEO
DETAILS: Saturday, Sept. 11, 12:30 p.m. PT, Portland, Ore. (Viking Pavilion)
SCOUTING UTEP: The UTEP Miners have yet to drop a match this season, having won five-set matches against UC Irvine (Aug. 27), Arizona (Sept. 3) and New Mexico State (Sept. 5), while sweeping Seattle (Aug. 28), Idaho State (Aug. 28) and Northwestern (Sept. 3). The Miners' win over Arizona marked their first win over a Power 5 program since 2005. Additionally, the Miners' win over New Mexico State marked their first win in the series since 2012. The Miners also beat Grand Canyon, 3-1, in an exhibition on Aug. 21 before the season. Overall, the Miners rank third in Conference USA and 47th in the nation for hitting percentage (.262), while ranking sixth in C-USA for kills per set (13.1). Serena Patterson, a C-USA preseason honoree, leads the UTEP offense with 2.67 kills per set, while Paulina Perez Rosas and Yasso Amin follow her with 2.55 and 2.13 kills per set, respectively. The truly elite part of the Miners' game, however, is their serving. The Miners rank second in C-USA and 11th in the nation with 2.21 service aces per set as a team. Ryley Frye leads that effort, as she has 15 aces in only 19 sets played so far this season, ranking her third in the nation with 0.79 aces per set. Besides Frye, Kristen Fritsche ranks second on the team with 0.38 service aces per set, while Patterson ranks third with 0.33 aces per set. Defensively, Alyssa Sianez leads UTEP with 3.79 digs per set, while four different players average at least 0.70 blocks per set. Vittoria Price leads the team with 1.00 blocks per set, while Alianza Darley (0.92 b/s), Ema Uskokovic (0.83 b/s) and Kenidy Howard (0.73 b/s) rank behind her.
ALL-TIME SERIES: The Vikings lead the all-time series between them and UTEP, 3-1. UTEP's one win in the series came in 2011, when the Miners beat the Vikings 3-1 on their home floor. The Vikings won the last meeting between the two teams, however, beating UTEP 3-0 at the Nike Invitational, hosted by the University of Portland, in 2017.
 
STORYLINES/STREAKS/RECORDS

• The Vikings faced a tough schedule last weekend at the Long Beach State tournament, facing two former national championship-winning programs in UCLA and Long Beach State. The Vikings held then-No. 18 UCLA to only .185 hitting, but still fell in three sets last Friday. The Vikings also led late in the first and third sets against Long Beach State last Saturday, but fell in three sets again.
• Parker Webb was named to the Long Beach State All-Tournament Team after coming within two kills of her second double-double of the season with eight kills on .217 hitting to go with 10 digs. Overall, Webb ranks ninth in the conference with 2.75 kills per set this season.
• Ellie Snook, last year's Big Sky Conference Libero of the Year, leads the conference once again with 5.06 digs per set. Snook leads the No. 2-ranked player – Southern Utah's Calli Johnson – by more than a full dig per set. Additionally, Snook ranks 39th in the nation with her 5.06 digs-per-set average.
• Ellie Snook also ranks second in the Big Sky and 85th in the nation with 0.50 service aces per set. Snook had a season-high four aces against Santa Clara on Aug. 28, when teammate Zoe McBride also had four aces.
• The Vikings have struggled in terms of hitting percentage so far this season. The Vikings rank last in the Big Sky with a .084 team hitting percentage, and have only hit above .150 in one match, which was their win over Santa Clara.
• The Vikings have more upperclassmen (10) than underclassmen (6) for the first time since 2018. It's a far cry from the team's numbers two years ago, when they had seven freshmen and nine underclassmen on their 12-player roster. The team has three fifth-year players in Genevieve Florig, Maddy Reeb and Parker Webb.
• The Vikings added six newcomers over the offseason between three true freshmen – Morgan Halady, Teniyah Leuluai and Lily Snook – and three transfers – Genevieve Florig, Makayla Lewis and Sydney Rabe. Of the transfers, Florig came in as a grad transfer from UCONN, Lewis played two years at San Jose State, while Rabe was at UW Green Bay last year but didn't play and remains a redshirt freshman. Florig joins Zoe McBride, who transferred to the Vikings before last season, as players from the Portland area who started their careers at other Division I schools before transferring back to the region.
• Lily Snook joined her sister Ellie on the Vikings' team this season. Their father, Jamie Snook, also played men's basketball at Portland State from 1996-99. Additionally, their cousin, Jake Porter, plays for the Vikings' football team, and Jake's dad played baseball at Portland State in the 1990s.
• Maddy Reeb would have exhausted her eligibility last year, but decided to come back for a fifth year after the NCAA granted all volleyball players an extra year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Reeb split time between being a setter and an outside hitter during her first four years at Portland State, but will play exclusively on the outside this season. Reeb's versatility saw her become the first Viking since 2010 to record a triple-double last year, which she did twice during the season.

 
DEFENSE, DEFENSE, DEFENSE
The Vikings may have played their best defensive match of the season last Friday, despite falling in three sets to then-No. 18 UCLA. The Vikings held the Bruins to only .185 hitting, a season low for a Viking opponent. Additionally, the Vikings held the Bruins' Mac May – a two-time Second-Team AVCA All-American – to only six kills on .235 hitting Friday. Élan McCall – an All-Pac-12 selection last season – only had four kills on .095 hitting against the Vikings. It should come as no surprise that the Vikings have been strong defensively, as they returned the Big Sky Libero of the Year in Ellie Snook. The junior libero leads the Big Sky with 5.06 digs per set, while she anchors a team defense that ranks second in the Big Sky with 14.8 digs per set. Genevieve Florig, a grad transfer from UCONN, has also moved into the Big Sky rankings with 0.94 blocks per set, an average that ranks her 10th in the conference. Florig had five blocks in the match against the 18th-ranked Bruins last Friday, and totaled seven blocks across six sets played last weekend.
 
ELLIE SNOOK, DEFENSIVE MASTER
Ellie Snook joined elite company within the Viking program when she was named the Big Sky Conference Libero of the Year last season. Snook joined Kasimira Clark (2012, 2013) and Tasha Bojanic (2017) as Vikings who have earned the honor, giving the program four honorees in the past nine seasons. Snook has opened up a strong defense of that honor this season, as she already holds the Big Sky lead in digs per set with an average of 5.06. Snook was at her best in the Vikings' 3-1 win over Santa Clara two weekends ago, setting a new four-set career high with 30 digs. Snook also had four aces against Santa Clara, and ranks second in the Big Sky with 0.50 service aces per set as a result. Additionally, Snook ranks in the top 100 of the NCAA in both categories, as she ranks 39th in digs per set and 85th in aces per set.
 
WEBB SLINGER
Redshirt senior Parker Webb earned a spot on the Long Beach State All-Tournament Team after nearly posting her second double-double of the season in the Vikings' match against the Beach. Webb finished two kills shy of a double-double with eight kills on .217 hitting to go with 10 digs. Webb recorded her first double-double of the season six days earlier, with a standout performance in her team's home match against San Jose State. Webb finished with 16 kills on .481 hitting against the Spartans, while also adding 11 digs. Webb raised her game to another level in the third set against the Spartans, when she recorded eight kills on .636 hitting to go with six digs in that frame alone. Webb also had a team-high 13 kills on .263 hitting in the Vikings' 3-1, comeback win over Santa Clara. Webb averages 2.75 kills per set for the season, ranking her ninth in the Big Sky after the first two weekends of play.
 
A WHOLE LOTTA WADA
Senior Ally Wada made a massive impact in her first season with the Vikings last season despite barely making it to Portland before the season started. Wada didn't make it to Portland until late December 2020, and yet was playing with the Vikings one month later during the team's 2021 winter season. Despite all that, Wada finished with 11 double-doubles in only 17 matches last season, and added another two weekends ago against Santa Clara. Wada finished with 33 assists and 17 digs against the Broncos, as she helped key a 3-1, comeback victory for the Vikings. Wada was at her best in the crucial third set, as she recorded 13 assists and eight digs in that frame alone. Wada had another 10 assists in the fourth set against the Broncos, when she led the Viking offense to .481 hitting (14-1-27) as they closed out the match. Wada's play earned her a spot on the Oregon Invitational All-Tournament Team as a result.
 
YOUNG NO MORE
The Vikings have more upperclassmen (10) than underclassmen (6) this season for the first time since 2018. The team has been developing its young players over the past two seasons, and now has as many fifth-year seniors (3 – Genevieve Florig, Maddy Reeb, Parker Webb) as they do true freshmen (3 – Morgan Halady, Teniyah Leuluai, Lily Snook). It's a far cry from where the Vikings' roster was two years ago, when the team featured seven freshmen and nine underclassmen on their 12-player roster.
 
DIVISION I TRANSFERS
The Vikings have added six Division I transfers in the past two seasons. Zoe McBride (Morgan State), Megan Sester (Cal Baptist) and Ally Wada (San Francisco) joined the Vikings before last season, while Genevieve Florig (UCONN), Makayla Lewis (San Jose State) and Sydney Rabe (UW Green Bay) joined the Vikings before this season. McBride and Wada finished with four and 11 double-doubles, respectively, in the team's shortened 2021 winter season. Lewis, meanwhile, was the only Viking to finish with at least eight kills, four blocks and 10 digs in the team's 5-0 exhibition win over Central Washington Monday.
 
PRESEASON PREDICTIONS
Big Sky coaches picked the Vikings to finish sixth in the conference before the season. If that were to come to fruition, it would mark the Vikings' highest finish within the conference since 2017, when they placed fourth. A sixth-place finish in the Big Sky would also see the Vikings return to the Big Sky tournament for the first time since 2017, when they made it to the conference semifinals before losing to regular-season champion and host Sacramento State.
 
SEASON HIGHLIGHTS
Aug. 28, 2021, Portland State 3, Santa Clara 1: Ellie Snook set a new four-set career high with 30 digs as the Vikings overcame a first-set loss to beat the Broncos in four sets. Snook had 14 digs in the crucial third set alone. Ally Wada was named to the Oregon Invitational All-Tournament Team after she finished with 33 assists and 17 digs in the match.