PORTLAND, Ore. — Portland State head volleyball coach Michael Seemann bucked tradition in building the Vikings' 2026 schedule, even as the two-time Big Sky Coach of the Year enters his 20th year at the helm for the Vikings.
 
In Seemann's milestone year, the Vikings will make the program's farthest trip east since 2004, while also navigating an 18-match conference season for the first time since the Vikings played 20 conference matches in 2013 and 2014.
 
The Vikings' trip east – to Chicago for a match against DePaul on Sept. 2, then three matches at Northern Illinois's tournament, Sept. 4-5, in DeKalb, Ill. – highlights a road-heavy non-conference season for the Vikings in 2026. Besides the midwest trip, the Vikings will also travel to West Texas for a tournament at Texas Tech, Sept. 10-11.
 
Bookending those two trips will be two weekends in Oregon. The Vikings open the season with a road match against cross-town rival University of Portland on Aug. 28, then host Nevada at Viking Pavilion on Aug. 30. The match against the Pilots will be the Vikings' first counting match against their rivals since 2022. The home opener against Nevada, meanwhile, will be the Vikings' lone home match during their non-conference season.
 
The Vikings then wrap up non-conference play with a pair of road matches against in-state powers Oregon and Oregon State. The Vikings play at Oregon Thursday, Sept. 17, at 5 p.m., then travel north 40 minutes to face the Beavers Friday, Sept. 18, at 7 p.m.
 
Conference play opens the following weekend, with the Vikings hosting the two newcomers to the Big Sky Conference this season in Utah Tech (Sept. 24) and Southern Utah (Sept. 26). The Vikings' last four conference-opening weekends had all been home-and-away splits, making 2026's opening weekend the Vikings' first to be entirely at home since their 2021 winter season.
 
A road weekend at Weber State (Oct. 1) and Idaho State (Oct. 3) follows, before the Vikings return home to host Montana (Oct. 8) and Montana State (Oct. 10). They'll close out the first half of the conference schedule with three road matches over six days, playing at Idaho (Oct. 15), Eastern Washington (Oct. 17) and Northern Arizona (Oct. 20).
 
The second half of the conference season opens with three straight home games against Northern Colorado (Oct. 24), Eastern Washington (Oct. 29) and Idaho (Oct. 31). Road matches at Montana State (Nov. 5) and Montana (Nov. 7) open the final month of the season for the Vikings.
 
The Vikings host Idaho State (Nov. 12) and Weber State (Nov. 14) for their final home weekend of the regular season, before closing out the regular season at Southern Utah (Nov. 19) and Utah Tech (Nov. 21).
 
The conference tournament follows over Thanksgiving week in Flagstaff, Ariz., as Northern Arizona earned the rights to host as the defending Big Sky regular-season champions.
 
The schedule figures to test what will still be a young group of Vikings with only six upperclassmen on their 2026 roster.  Even still, the Vikings return several key players, including All-Big Sky first-team selection Alivia Eikenberg and returning starters Ava Blascziek at setter and Paige Stepaniuk at libero. Reese Biesemeyer and Willow Watson also started a majority of matches in the middle and on the right side, respectively, last season. That should give the Vikings experience in some key areas, even as they incorporate eight newcomers between six freshmen and two transfers.
 
That group can be the ones to push Seemann over 300 wins. He needs only seven more victories to reach the milestone, at which point he will join former coaches and PSU Hall of Famers Marlene Piper (445 career wins) and Jeff Mozzochi (371 career wins) in the 300-win club.
 
As the schedule lays out, the earliest Seemann could celebrate his 300th win would be during the Texas Tech Tournament, Sept. 10-11. It's the path he set for himself and the Vikings in his 20th year.