BIOGRAPHY
A piece of the Portland State volleyball program’s championship pedigree returned to the Park Blocks when Diana Villalpando joined the Vikings’ coaching staff as an assistant ahead of the 2024 fall season. She'll enter her second year in her current role, as well as her third year overall on staff, during the 2025 fall season.
As a student-athlete for the Vikings, Villalpando helped lead the program to Big Sky regular-season championships in 2007, 2009 and 2010. Additionally, she played on the only two Portland State teams to play in the NCAA Division I Tournament after winning the Big Sky Conference Tournament in 2008 and 2010.
“Diana is an exceptional addition to our coaching staff,” head coach Michael Seemann said of his former player. “She is a proven winner as a player and as a coach. Her experience building programs from scratch has prepared her to become a very ambitious, effective recruiter.
“As a Portland State alum, and a successful student-athlete she understands what makes this place so special, which will translate into her building a student-athlete experience second to none. Our staff and team will benefit immediately from Diana's approach to teaching and her passion for this great sport.”
A VIKING HELPING VIKINGS
Villalpando led Carisa Barron to Top Newcomer honors from the Big Sky Conference in her first year back on the Park Blocks in 2024. Barron, who also earned All-Big Sky second-team honors, averaged 3.25 kills per set against conference opponents this season, the sixth-best average for any player within the conference during league play. That was a marked improvement from her numbers through non-conference play, when she was averaging just 2.34 kills per set.
Additionally, Makayla Lewis hit 1k kills and 1k digs during the 2024 season. She reached 1,000-career kills during the Vikings' match against Nevada on Sept. 1, then hit the 1k mark in digs during the Vikings' match at Northern Colorado on Nov. 9. She became just the third Viking during the program's Big Sky era (1996-present) to join the 1k-1k club, joining Jessica Brodie (1,533 kills, 1,441 digs) and former teammate Zoe McBride (1,236 kills, 1,111 digs).
The 2024 season also featured the top three most-attended matches at Viking Pavilion. The Vikings set a facility record with 1,340 fans in attendance for their match against Oregon on Sept. 18. They added two more standout crowds between their matches against Montana on Sept. 28 (898) and Sacramento State on Oct. 18 (890).
CHAMPIONSHIP PEDIGREE
Villalpando’s championship pedigree has continued into her coaching career. As an assistant coach with the indoor team at Corban University from 2018-22, she helped build the foundation for five NAIA National Tournament appearances, including a runner-up national finish in 2022. Corban also won Cascade Collegiate Conference tournament titles in 2020 and 2021, as well as a regular-season conference title in 2021.
While serving as an assistant for the indoor team, Villalpando also spearheaded Corban’s beach volleyball team as head coach. She led Corban to the 2022 NAIA Beach Volleyball national title, as well as a runner-up finish in 2023. In 2021, Villalpando guided Corban to a fourth-place finish at the AVCA Small College Beach National Championships.
Villalpando spent the 2023-24 academic year as the Director of Volleyball at Multnomah University. There, she established the school’s first-ever beach volleyball program while also serving as head coach of the indoor team during the 2023 fall season.
Prior to her time at Corban and Multnomah, Villalpando spent the 2013 season as the recruiting coordinator at NCAA Division III Lewis & Clark College. She returned to the Park Blocks as a volunteer assistant in 2016 before serving as an assistant coach at Eastern Washington in 2017. Outside of the college ranks, Villalpando coached at the Oregon Juniors Volleyball Academy, where she was the head coach of the U16 teams as well as an assistant for the U18 squad.
As a player, Villalpando made a name for herself as one of only three players to record more than 1,000 career digs at Portland State at the time of her graduation. She currently ranks eighth all-time with 1,006 career digs. She also ranked tied for first in Division I program history with 117 matches played at the time of her graduation, though she now ranks tied for sixth in the category.
Her best season came as a senior in 2010 when the Vikings swept the Big Sky regular-season and tournament titles. As the team’s primary libero, Villalpando ranked eighth in the Big Sky Conference with 3.75 digs per set. Her 424 total digs that season were the eighth-best single-season mark during the program’s Division I history at the time.
