Senior’s night out

The Portland State women’s volleyball team will play host to Big Sky rivals Sacramento State at the Peter W. Stott Center on Saturday in the last game of the regular season. The team will honor its only outgoing senior, defensive specialist/libero Nicole Bateham before the first serve.

This season the Vikings hold a record of 16-12 overall and 11-4 in the Big Sky Conference. They are currently second in the Big Sky table, one win behind league leaders Northern Colorado. Sacramento State sits third in the conference with nine wins and five losses (16-13 overall). Both the Hornets and the Vikings are assured a spot in the Big Sky playoffs this year. Eastern Washington is the fourth team qualified for the postseason.

The Vikings still have a mathematical chance of becoming co-champions of Big Sky regular season. However, since Northern Colorado beat the Vikings in both match-ups this year, they own the tie-breaker for the top seed in the conference tournament.

“Well, it would be awesome to finish second,” Bateham said. “We would have liked to have the championship, but obviously Northern Colorado [has been] the better team since they beat us twice. It would be great to go into the Big Sky tournament with a second seed, and hopefully we can seal the tournament win with that.”

Sacramento State hopes to grab the second seed for themselves. In the last encounter between the two teams in October this year, the Hornets plowed through the Vikings 3-0 (25-10, 25-20, 25-15) in Sacramento, Calif.

“Sac State is definitely a good team. We definitely didn’t have our greatest performance against them the first time,” Bateham said. “But it will be great being in our home, able to play on our court and in our own way. We can win if we take care of our side of the net then we can get them out of system and get plays in.”

The only senior on the team, Bateham’s record during her career at Portland State is very impressive. Bateham started her Vikings career in 2007 and has 99 wins with the team so far and is third all-time for digs in the school’s history with more than 1,000.

In the conference this season, Bateham is currently sixth in digs per set with a 4.33 average. Her contributions have helped Portland State overcome a mid season slump.

After four wins from their first five games this year, the Vikings lost eight games in a row. However, since then the Viks have won 12 of their last 15 games. They are currently on a three-game winning streak.

Just like Bateham, head coach Michael Seemann, who is in his fifth year of being in charge of the team, is one short of his 100th win with the Vikings. Seemann is currently 99-46 and over the last four years, he has the best record among all current coaches in the Big Sky.

“We’re excited to be home again,” Seemann said. “It’s been a tough road trip—we were gone for 14 days, that is rough, so just glad to be back.”

Saturday’s game against Sacramento State at the Stott Center will feature live statistics and will be broadcast on Big Sky TV. The first serve will take place at 7 p.m.