BIOGRAPHY
The Portland State volleyball coaching staff has a touch of the beach thanks to Grace McCullough, a two-year beach volleyball player for Concordia University Irvine. She joined the Vikings’ coaching staff in 2023, and will enter her second year as an assistant coach in 2024.
The Vikings recorded their best home record since 2013 in McCullough’s first year on the Park Blocks. The Vikings went 10-3 at Viking Pavilion this past fall, a home record that included wins over Pac-12 programs Utah and Oregon State, as well as eventual Big Sky regular-season champ Sacramento State.
The 2023 season featured three wins for the Vikings over Pac-12 programs, a program first. In addition to the home wins over Utah and Oregon State, the Vikings also won a road match against the Beavers, 3-0, for the program’s first road sweep of OSU since 1980.
Individually, Sophia Meyers was unanimously selected to the All-Big Sky first team after she became the first Viking since Whitney Phillips in 2010 to average over 3.00 kills (3.52) and digs (3.01) per set. Meyers also led the Big Sky and ranked in the top 25 of the nation with 0.47 aces per set, an average that broke the single-season program record that Meyers’ former teammate, Ellie Snook, set at 0.42 per set in 2021.
Lauryn Anderson, meanwhile, became the program’s third straight player to receive Top Newcomer honors from the Big Sky Conference, while also making the all-conference second team. Anderson earned the honors after leading the Big Sky Conference with a .384 hitting percentage. That was another program record for the Vikings this past fall, as Anderson’s mark bettered the old record of .373 that Katy Wilson set in 2017.
BACKGROUND AND PERSONAL
McCullough brings a focus on student-athlete wellness, operations, and technical coordination to her role as an assistant coach, in addition to assisting in the gym.
“We are fortunate to have the opportunity to hire Grace as our newest staff member for the program,” Seemann said of McCullough upon her hire. “Grace has a diverse background in the sport, competing as a student-athlete and coaching at the club level. She is motivated, organized, and ambitious, all traits that will help pave the path to her professional goals.”
McCullough spent two years with the Golden Eagles of Concordia-Irvine, including the 2023 spring season when the team placed third at the AVCA Small College Championships. That served as redemption for the previous year, when the Golden Eagles fell in the third-place game at the same tournament.
McCullough played beach and indoor volleyball at MiraCosta Community College during the 2020-21 school year, after playing a year of indoor volleyball for Lewis & Clark College in Portland in the fall of 2019. She prepped at San Marcos High School in San Marcos, Calif., while playing club volleyball for the Wave Volleyball Club.
During her time at Concordia-Irvine, McCullough also served as the head coach of the California Volleyball Club’s 16-1’s boys team for two years.
In addition to her role with the volleyball team, McCullough is also working towards a master’s degree and professional license in Early Intervention Special Education at Portland State University.
