PORTLAND, Ore. --- Juniors Marissa Plummer and Kati Hronek each notched 10 kills but the No. 19 San Diego Toreros held off the Portland Pilots for a three set victory (25-20, 25-16, 25-20) Thursday night at the Chiles Center. Amy Degroot led the Toreros with a game-high 17 kills on a .571 hitting percentage.
The Pilots (9-15, 2-6 WCC) came out strong in the first set, preventing the Toreros (18-4, 8-0 WCC) from establishing long runs throughout the match. San Diego jumped ahead 7-3 and 13-9 in the first but Portland fought back, tying it early at seven and again at 15. A kill from Plummer, one of five in the set, gave Portland an 18-17 lead but Ali Troost responded for the Toreros, nabbing three kills in the span of four points and allowing San Diego to finish the first set with an 8-3 run.
Portland took an early 5-3 lead in the third set before Amy Degroot notched two service aces as part of a 5-0 Torero run. Portland again responded quickly, trimming the San Diego lead to 11-10 before the Toreros went on another mini-run. The Pilot offense refused to back down, however, trimming the deficit to one again at 18-17 with the trio of Plummer, Hronek, and sophomore Kate Bostwick. In the end, the experience of the Toreros proved too much as San Diego finished the set on a 7-3 run to escape with the victory.
San Diego came in leading the conference by holding conference opponents to a measly .138 hitting percentage but the Pilots hit .221 on the night. Plummer led the way with a .450 attacking percentage on her kills while sophomore Ariel Usher had eight kills on a .389 percentage.
Portland head coach Joe Houck was impressed with his team’s performance after the match. “We have been working a lot on our transition and getting more options offensively to generate ways to get Marissa the ball. She has been a high percentage attacker for us all year and is really developing into an elite middle blocker in the conference as tonight’s match showed.”
Portland concludes the three match home stand on Saturday with a 1 PM match against the St. Mary’s Gaels.
