Lady Viks have NCAA return trip on weekly agenda

PSU players celebrate winning the Big Sky regular season title Saturday.

Photo courtesy goviks.com/Ryan Borda.

A year after reaching the NCAA Tournament for the first time, the Portland State women’s basketball team is poised to reach the tournament again after capturing the Big Sky Conference regular season title.

Along with the title, the Vikings get to host the six-team conference tournament, which begins Thursday with two quarterfinal games.

PSU, which won the conference tournament last year despite being the No. 5 seed, plays a semifinal game Friday at 7:05 p.m. The title game is at 2:07 p.m. Saturday.

The Vikings were seeded No. 15 in the NCAA Tournament last year and lost to Texas A&M in the first round.

This year’s squad, which is 19-10 overall, again features Big Sky Player of the Year Eryn Jones, as well as Newcomer of the Year Courtney VanBrocklin. The Viks lost to BYU and Georgia Tech during the season, but have wins over the University of Portland and Loyola-Marymount of the West Coast Conference.