Volleyball regroups for the weekend

The Portland State women’s volleyball team did not have their usual lights-out performance last week, splitting their matches and suffering their second conference loss of the year.

Karl kuchs/VANGUARD STAFf

Damage control: Portland will try to rebound from a loss last weekend.

But with two weekends left to play in the season, they are trying to brush it off and continue looking forward. The team goes back on the road to face the University of North
Dakota on Thursday and the University of Northern Colorado on Saturday.

The name of the game this weekend is offense. The Vikings have generally been strong in that regard this season, but barely managed to outhit Southern Utah University last Thursday and were then outhit by Northern Arizona University in a four-set loss on Saturday. “There’s no question that we have to get better offensively,” head coach Michael Seemann said.

With senior outside hitter Megan Ellis and junior outside hitters Aubrey Mitchell and Jaklyn Wheeler leading the charge, the Vikings head to North Dakota to start the weekend. North Dakota is currently 13-14 overall and 8-8 in conference, and are coming off a loss to Northern Colorado on Monday.

On Saturday, the Vikings will gear up for their own showdown against the Northern Colorado squad. The Bears recently secured their postseason eligibility and sit in fourth place in the Big Sky with a record of 18-8 overall and 11-5 in conference.

Of the weekend’s matches, junior setter Garyn Schlatter said, “Our focus is going to be our communication between one another during plays and during rallies, and making sure that we are all taking care of our own responsibilities on the floor, so in turn everything as [a] team is getting taken care of.”

The matches are scheduled for 5 p.m. Thursday and 6 p.m. Saturday. Live stats can be found at goviks.com.