PORTLAND, Ore. — The Portland State volleyball team caught magic in a bottle last fall. Ten wins out of 11 matches in the middle of the season helped produce the program's first 20-win season since 2017, its first national postseason appearance since 2010, and its first win at a national postseason tournament in Division I program history. And it all happened in front of the most raucous bench in the Big Sky Conference.
 
The 2022 season might seem burdened with recapturing that magic, then. But as luck would have it for the Vikings, a lot of the magic is still in the bottle.
 
Five starters are back from the 2021 season, including all three of the team's All-Big Sky first-team selections in Makayla Lewis, Ellie Snook and Parker Webb. Lewis was also named the Big Sky's Top Newcomer last season after averaging 3.55 kills and 2.95 digs per set in Big Sky play. Snook, meanwhile, earned her second straight Big Sky Libero of the Year honor after averaging over five digs per set for the third straight season.
 
Additionally, several impact players beyond the five starters return this season, and they'll be joined by a group of six newcomers that includes two former Big Sky standouts in Ashlyn Blotzer (Eastern Washington) and Sophia Meyers (Montana), as well as a two-year starting setter at Butler in Madison Friebel.
 
More importantly, the ingredient that stirred the drink within the bottle last season is back. That was competition. Just as he did last year, head coach Michael Seemann has emphasized competition as early and as often as possible in fall practices.
 
"I think we've been doing a really good job of creating the drills and creating the environment for competitiveness. As many time as we can, we have a score on [the board during a drill]," Seemann said of the tone within the team's fall practices.
 
That competitiveness comes with a stated purpose, one Seemann isn't shy of saying.
 
"Our goal right now is to try to have the best team in the conference, but also the second-best team in the conference. That's what we're kind of locking into, even though we're not comparing ourselves to anybody yet because we haven't played anybody," Seemann said of the team's intentions.
 
External expectations, whether in the form of a preseason coaches poll or elsewhere, won't deter the Vikings from that goal. Seemann hopes by stating the goal so explicitly it'll help his team maintain a competitive gym throughout the season. The second group will have to stay engaged if it's going to claim to be the second-best team in the Big Sky Conference, after all.
 
"As we establish a starting core, we tend to kind of focus on that side and the other side just kind of rotates," Seemann said of year's past. "[This year] we have to use our advantage of being deep in order for us to grow. We might not see a ton of success at the beginning of the season because of that, but I think it'll say a lot about us when we come to the end of the season, that last third, when you want to be at your best."
 
The pieces that make up the Vikings' depth will be a mixture of the familiar and the new. In addition to Lewis, Snook and Webb, Ashleigh Barto and Zoe McBride return after each started 28 of the team's 31 matches last season. Teniyah Leuluai also returns after splitting setting duties with Ally Wada in the Vikings' 6-2 formation last season. In addition to those players, Gabby Hollins returns after averaging 2.65 kills and 1.31 digs per set off the bench. Kylie Komo, Jasmine Powell, Morgan Halady and Sydney Rabe – now all veterans of the Vikings' system – return as well.
 
"There's a lot of experience on the floor, whether or not they're a regular contributor in our lineup," Seemann said of his returning group. "I think you have to depend on them a little bit. That experience can be shared and they're doing a really good job with the younger kids. I think that's going to become a lot more important when we're starting to be on the road and seeing other teams."
 
The newcomers feature their own mixture of veterans and young players. Blotzer brings the most experience among the team's newcomers after playing the last three seasons at Big Sky-rival Eastern Washington. Blotzer, who will split blocking duties with Barto and the team's other middle blockers, was a two-time All-Big Sky second-team selection for the Eagles, having averaged over 2.00 kills and 0.67 blocks per set during each of the last two seasons.
 
Meyers also brings experience within the Big Sky Conference, having played her freshman season at Montana during the COVID-altered 2021 winter season. Meyers led the Grizzlies with 2.71 kills per set and closed the season with five double-doubles in the team's last eight matches – a stretch in which she averaged 3.14 digs per set.
 
The Vikings also bolstered their group of setters with two transfers in Friebel and Ella Hartford, who played her freshman year at William Jessup, an NAIA school, last season.
 
Two freshmen round out the Vikings' six newcomers in Kendra Duffey and Danica Wulf, both of whom played for the No. 1-ranked volleyball club in California in Tstreet Volleyball Club.
 
The new group has already contributed to the competitive gym that Seemann wants, especially in one of Seemann's perennial areas of emphasis: serving. The Vikings were already a strong serving group – their 209 aces last season were their most since 2005 while Snook set a single-season program record with 50 aces by herself – but the newcomers have found ways to push the returners.
 
"[Our] new kids are putting pressure on an already pretty good serving team," Seemann said. "I also like the different styles that are coming in, too, so we can give an opponent a lot of different looks. I'll probably be more willing to go deeper in the bag for serving subs because we just have more options."
 
The options don't end at the serve, either. The Vikings' depth will allow them to play in a 6-2 formation, something they switched to near the start of Big Sky Conference play last season. Some combination of Friebel, Leuluai and Hartford will take on the two setting roles, and Seemann has been pleased with the way that group has supported each other so far in practice.
 
"I've asked each position to essentially be the greatest fans of their position, and I think the setters have taken that on the most," Seemann said of the group. "They're extremely positive with each other, which is super good. It's interesting. It's highly competitive."
 
Webb figures to have a lock on one of the right-side roles after she ranked 10th in the conference with 3.02 kills per set despite playing only three rotations for much of the season. The other spot could come down to multiple Vikings. Powell has taken swings on the right in practice, as has Duffey and Meyers.
 
Whoever doesn't end up opposite Webb will still contribute to what is possibly the deepest group of outside hitters the Vikings have had in recent years. In addition to Lewis and McBride, the Vikings also have viable options in Hollins, Wulf and the potential right sides of Powell, Duffey and Meyers. That not only helps push the competition in practice, but it also gives Seemann options should anyone struggle in a match.
 
But even with the talent at the pins, Seemann has stressed his team not try to do too much on the outside. Defense – another one of Seemann's perennial points of emphasis – has been a strength for the Vikings the past few seasons, after all. The Vikings led the Big Sky with nearly 17 digs per set last season, while four different players averaged at least 2.5 digs per set between Snook (5.14 d/s), Lewis (2.73), McBride (2.62) and Wada (2.50).
 
"[We've been] creating and building intelligence in our players to make those decisions in those moments of when to go for a kill and when to just put pressure on the other team and be patient in that regard," Seemann said of one of his emphases in fall camp. "That makes for inefficient volleyball and for longer rallies, but I think we have to understand that we're pretty good at keeping the ball off the floor and so maybe just continuing to create more opportunities for our attackers to terminate is a really smart thing."
 
All of the lessons and points of emphasis from fall camp will get a doozy of an early test in the form of the Vikings' opening home tournament, the Hotel Vance Rose City Showdown, Aug. 26-28. Oregon, ranked 19th in the AVCA Preseason Poll, comes to Viking Pavilion, as does fellow in-state Pac-12 program Oregon State and five-time national champion Long Beach State.
 
"We're so familiar with Oregon that I think that's a very good barometer for us," Seemann said of facing the ranked Ducks on opening weekend. "Win or lose, I think we have to judge ourselves on, are we making plays? Are we on our heels a lot? I thought [our spring match against the Ducks] was very encouraging just in terms of how we played with them."
 
The tournament also kicks off a regional focus within the team's non-conference schedule. The Vikings will play within the state of Oregon on three of their four non-conference weekends, while six of their 11 non-conference matches will be played within the city of Portland.
 
The short travel to matches allows for a longer development process, something Seemann noted will be critical if the Vikings are truly to have the first- and second-best teams in the Big Sky Conference.
 
"Our goals have been very simple at a daily level: try to make the people around you better," Seemann said. "We haven't talked about setting goals in terms of, 'hey, we want to finish top three. Or we want to make it to the tournament.' We have not set any of those stated goals on purpose."
 
Focus on competing every day in practice and the rest will follow, essentially. It was a winning formula for the Vikings last year as the team won a lot and had fun doing it. Whether the Vikings can repeat that is to be seen.
 
But that's where the magic still in the bottle will help. In a lot of areas, the Vikings are starting with 20 points or so in the set, rather than zero.