Tuesday's Six I Monday's Six I Honorable Mention

With the summer in full swing and the fall sports season quickly approaching, we thought it would be the perfect time to look back at some of the most memorable moments from past year for University of Portland Athletics. The historic year featured Pilots excelling in competition, in the classroom and in the community. Many Portland alums recorded monumental accomplishments as well.

Last week we featured a number of honorable mention moments, deserving of recognition. This week we are releasing the Top 30 overall moments from the year, with six per day highlighted.
 
Today's highlights include a pair of men's basketball seniors cracking the record books, an elite men's soccer recruiting class, cross country at the top of the class academically, and a shift on the volleyball bench.

We will release six moments each day this week, so be sure to check back. Feel free to reach out to us on social media to share some of your favorite moments, or you can also let us know if we missed anything, as 2017-18 was truly a great year to be a Pilot. Thank you for your support this year and beyond!
 
Wednesday's Top University of Portland Athletics Moments of 2017-18
Accomplishments listed in chronological order (Monday, Tuesday, Honorable Mention)

December 19: Senior Philipp Hartwich broke the men's basketball career record for blocked shots after swatting three shots in a 78-67 win against Hartford. Hartwich concluded his career with 160 total blocked shots, 39 ahead of the next Pilot on the list. He also shattered the school's single-season blocks record this year with 73. The Cologne, Germany native graduated in May and signed a professional contract with C.B. Peñas Huesca in Spain's LEB Gold division.


January 24: Volleyball promoted assistant Jeff Baxter to head coach after collegiate power USC hired Brent Crouch as its head coach. Baxter, who also served as head coach of the Portland beach volleyball program, helped guide the Pilots to unprecedented heights in his first two years with the program. The team set numerous records on The Bluff in 2016, including a program-best third-place finish in the West Coast Conference. 


January 27: The women's basketball team stunned Saint Mary's when the Pilots claimed their first win over the Gaels since 2009 with a thrilling 68-65 victory. Julie Spencer recorded a double-double with 16 points and 14 rebounds, Lisa-Marie Kaempf added 14 points off the bench, and Darian Slaga chipped in with 10 points.

February 7: For the third straight year, men's soccer head coach Nick Carlin-Voigt and his staff brought in a nationally ranked recruiting class, this time signing the No. 3 group in the country. The class, at one point ranked No. 1 nationally, includes five recruits who are ranked nationally in the top 100 players in the country, and six of the seven recruits compete in the U.S. Soccer Development Academy, which is considered the top tier of youth soccer in the United States.


February 9: The United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association named the Portland men's cross country team the Division I Scholar Team of the Year. The Pilots had a historic runner-up finish at the 2017 NCAA Cross Country Championships and Portland was the top finishing team with a cumulative grade-point average of 3.0 or higher.


February 24: Men's basketball senior D'Marques Tyson became the 40th player in school history to score 1,000 career points after recording 12 points in a game at Pepperdine. Tyson would close out his career with 1,016 points, good for 37th all-time. The three-point sharpshooter also finished No. 2 in career three-pointers made (255).