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Go Lady Viks! Home games to be played at Lewis & Clark College ..... Lady Viks & Eidelweiss
PORTLAND – The Portland State women's basketball team will play its 2017-18 home slate at Lewis & Clark College due to the on-going construction of the Viking Pavilion at the Peter W. Stott Center.
"We knew this was going to be a difficult year to schedule because of the completion of the Viking Pavilion," third-year Head Coach Lynn Kennedy said. "We have no games on the Park Blocks this year but we are excited about the partnership with Lewis & Clark College and having our home games so close to campus."
With the $50 million renovation to the outdated Peter W. Stott athletics facility and the construction of the new Viking Pavilion well underway, Portland State finds itself without a home court for the 2017-18 season. PSU and Lewis & Clark College have teamed up and the Vikings will play all of their home games at Lewis & Clark this season.
Due to the shared facility, all Portland State women's basketball games held on weekdays will begin at 8 p.m. PT. All games held on weekends will begin at 1 p.m.
The Vikings open their 2017-18 campaign with five-straight road games before finally playing their home opener against Multnomah University on Saturday, Nov. 25.
"The plan was to start home-and-home series with our non-conference opponents on the road this year and have those games returned to open the new arena. We have some tough opponents early, but we feel this will get us ready for Big Sky Conference play."
Portland State opens the season on Friday, Nov. 10 against UNLV in Las Vegas, Nev. The Vikings will then head to Reno, Nev., the home of the 2018 Big Sky Women's Basketball Championship, to take on Nevada-Reno on Sunday, Nov. 12.
"We are excited to open up in Las Vegas, where we played well last year," Kennedy added. PSU went 2-1 at the Puerto Rico Classic in Las Vegas a year ago. "UNLV is looking to compete for a Mountain West title after coming off a great season last year."
The Vikings spend the next weekend in California taking on UC Davis (Friday, Nov. 17) and San Jose State (Nov.12) before heading north to take-on Seattle U for a pre-Thanksgiving showdown on Wednesday, Nov. 22.
Portland State opens its "home" slate three days later on Saturday, Nov. 25 when it welcomes the Multnomah University Lions to the Pamplin Sports Center on the Lewis & Clark campus.
PSU will take on cross-town rival University of Portland on Tuesday, Nov. 28 before hosting Kennedy's alma mater Northwest University on Saturday, Dec. 9.
The Vikings head back to California to face UC Irvine on Saturday, Dec. 19 before rounding out non-conference play. They host the Southeastern Conference's Ole Miss before heading to Spokane, Wash. to take on Gonzaga.
"Gonzaga was a NCAA tournament team and to play in The Kennel will help our team get better," Kennedy said. "It is also exciting to play an SEC team in front of our home crowd. Ole Miss returns a young team and they will be a team to watch in the SEC this year."
From there, the Vikings focus their attention on conference play.
Portland State opens league play on Saturday, Dec. 30 against the Sacramento State Hornets. The two schools split the season series a year ago with each team winning on the road. The Vikings then host Eastern Washington (Jan. 4) and Idaho (Jan. 6) before hitting the road for games at Montana State (Jan. 11) and at Montana (Jan. 13).
Idaho State (Jan. 18) and Weber State (Jan. 20) come to town before the Vikings hit the road for three-straight road games at Sacramento State (Jan. 27), at Idaho (Feb. 1), and at Eastern Washington (Feb. 3).
Portland State returns home for a pair of games against the Montana schools before hitting the road for games at Weber State (Feb. 15) and at Idaho State (Feb. 17).
The Big Sky women's basketball schedule is a few games shy of a true round-robin schedule. Portland State will face Southern Utah, Northern Arizona, Northern Colorado, and North Dakota only once this season, while playing everyone else twice.
Portland State rounds out its home slate against Southern Utah on Thursday Feb. 22 and Northern Arizona on Saturday, Feb. 24.
PSU hits the road for the final week of the regular season. The last trip will be the most grueling of the season for the Vikings. They head to Greeley, Colo. to take on the Northern Colorado Bears on Wednesday, Feb. 28. Portland State then concludes the regular season with its last conference game against North Dakota on Friday, March 2. The Fighting Hawks will be leaving the Big Sky following the 2017-18 season.
The final trip of the year will only continue for the Vikings as they leave Grand Forks, N.D. and head to Reno, Nev. for the 2018 Women's Basketball Championship host by the Big Sky Conference at the Reno Events Center.
It will be the third year of the championship being hosted in Reno and the Vikings are looking to improve on their success from a year ago. Coming in as the seven-seed, Portland State defeated No. 10 Northern Arizona in the first round before taking down No. 2 North Dakota in the quarterfinals. The Vikings then fell by a narrow 54-50 margin to Idaho State in the semifinals.
Portland State returns the core of its roster from last year's team that improved by 12 wins from the previous year. The Vikings went 16-17 overall and 8-10 in league play led by the law firm of Ashley Bolston, Sidney Rielly, and Courtney West.
Bolston was named the Big Sky's Top Newcomer and earned All-Big Sky Second Team honors. Rielly was named to the All-Big Sky Third team and was the top shooting guard in the nation with a .530 field goal percentage. West led the Big Sky, and finished in the top 10 in the nation, with a PSU single-season record 94 blocked shots.
