Author: Alex Moore

The college life can be hard on the body, especially for non-athletic majors. If you’re feeling particularly out-of-shape in the post-holiday season, Portland State can help. Yoga, Pilates, Zumba, cycling, strength training, Boot Camp and kickboxing are just some of the classes offered at Portland State this winter through the Rec Center.

The fitness program at Portland State is a very diverse program that offers up to 60 classes per week. The program has been growing in size and popularity every year. Yoga and Zumba tend to attract the most participants.

Everyone has heard of Blue Man Group, but have you heard of Portland State’s latest addition to athletic events, the Green Man Group?

The Green Man Group will be the new student section at basketball, football, volleyball and other athletic events at Portland State. The group will be replacing the Horde as the new student section.

Hockey club president Stephen Printup has one message for all Portland State students who have an interest in hockey: “Come play.”

Hockey was established as a club sport in 2007. Since then, the sport has blossomed and progressed year by year. The team has made trips down to Arizona and San Jose for games and gains more players every year.

For athletes, a four-week break can be dangerous; in track and field, a four-week break could ruin a season.

For the Portland State Vikings, getting out of shape during the holiday break was not an option. Head coach Ronnye Harrison has been working with athletes who gave up part of their break to stay in shape. Harrison hopes his team has not lost a beat and will continue where they left off in early December.

“Hopefully the number is really low for those who didn’t train for the holiday break,” Harrison said. “There were quite a few [athletes] who stayed here over break. You can’t take vacations in this sport and I’m the type of coach that if they’re going to sacrifice vacation to train, I’m going to sacrifice vacation to help them in any way I can.”

Winter break won’t exactly be relaxing for the Portland State men’s basketball team. The Vikings (4-2 overall) will play six of their next eight games on the road, including road games against Pac-12 in-state rivals Oregon and Oregon State.

During the end of the road stretch, the Vikings will begin Big Sky conference play with away games at Montana on Dec. 28 and Montana State on Dec. 30. The Vikings will not play their first conference game at home until Jan. 5, when they host Northern Arizona.

After a string of losses, the Portland State women’s basketball team (2-3 overall) will finally return home this Saturday to host the Nevada Wolfpack at the Stott Center.

The Vikings are coming off a tough three-game road trip, which included games against the Oregon Ducks, the Portland Pilots and the Gonzaga Bulldogs. The Vikings were winless against their non-conference opponents, and head coach Sherri Murrell is looking forward to returning to the Park Blocks.

The Portland State women’s basketball team (2-3 overall) found themselves ahead of the Gonzaga Bulldogs (3-1 overall) as sophomore guard Kate Lanz scored the first basket of the game, a mid-range jumper with 19:24 left in the first half.

The Vikings held on to that lead for nine seconds.

The game was all Bulldogs from there on, as Gonzaga opened up a 16-4 run after a Jazmin Redmon layup with 15:22 left in the first half. The Vikings trailed by 23 points after the first half, and would go on to lose the game 99-69.

Portland State suffered their first loss of the season this past Sunday in Eugene, as the women’s basketball team fell 75-71 to the Oregon Ducks at Matthew Knight Arena.

Portland State (2-1 overall, 0-0 conference) played hard for the full 40-minutes and nearly pulled off a late-game upset after trailing by 14 points early in the second half. The Vikings cut the lead to 72-71 with under thirty seconds left in the game, but the final and most critical Ducks’ possession of the game ended with a three pointer by Oregon freshman guard Jordan Loera.

The Ducks were led by 6-foot-2 senior Amanda Johnson, who overwhelmed the Vikings inside. Johnson finished with 30 points and a career-high 19 rebounds.

After an undefeated weekend to start the season, the Vikings will take a 2-0 record into Eugene this Sunday against the Oregon Ducks (1-0).

Portland State comes into the game undefeated with opening season home wins under their belt against University of California, Irvine, and UC Santa Barbara this past weekend. The Vikings were led by last season’s Big Sky MVP, junior guard Eryn Jones, who averaged 19.5 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists last week.

Women’s basketball started their season with a bang, as the Portland State Vikings (2-0) won games against the UC Irvine Anteaters (1-2) and the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos (0-2) at the Stott Center.

It was also a big weekend for last season’s Big Sky MVP, senior guard Eryn Jones, who scored her 1,000th point against UC Santa Barbara on Sunday afternoon. Jones is only the 15th player in Portland State women’s basketball history to accomplish this feat.

“It was really humbling,” Jones said. “I didn’t even know I was that close. It’s a great honor and a nice accomplishment.”

Portland State men’s basketball officially starts the season this Friday with a road game against the University of Denver Pioneers. This will be the first meeting ever between these two teams.

“This is going to be a tough game,” head coach Tyler Geving said. “Denver’s a good team; they play a different style than us. We just need to play our game, present good opportunities and get good shots.”

The Vikings return three players from last year’s team, including second team All-Big Sky shooting guard Charles Odum. Odum led the Vikings in scoring last season, averaging 14.0 points per game. Portland State also brings back two starters to their frontline in seniors Chehales Tapscott and Nate Lozeau. Tapscott led the team with 8.1 rebounds per game last year.