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PORTLAND, Ore. --- The Portland Pilots rallied to win the third set, but the San Diego Toreros would prevail 3-1 in a West Coast Conference women's volleyball match played on Saturday afternoon at the Chiles Center. The Pilots (6-22, 1-16 WCC) featured a balanced attack as six players recorded six or more kills, led by a team-high eight from both Emily Liger and Makayla Lindburg.
 
San Diego (18-10, 11-6 WCC) won by scores of 25-18, 25-19, 23-25 and 25-11. Alaysia Brown led the Toreros with 20 kills, while Sofia Lavin added 19.
 
The Toreros jumped out to a big lead to begin the first set, but the Pilots responded by rattling off four straight points. Liger had three of the points, courtesy a kill and two service aces. Portland continued to climb back, and another kill by Liger made the score 12-16. Moments later Morgan Robinson buried a kill and Bea Loper and Brittney Markwith combined for a block and the Pilots were within three. The Toreros would then out-score the Pilots 6-2 the rest of the way to clinch the first set.
 
The second set began well for the Pilots, who forced a 5-5 tie when Lindburg connected for a kill. The score was tied once again at 7-7 before San Diego created some separation. The Pilots though would hang around and a perfectly placed service ace by Ali Koumelis pulled the Pilots within 12-15. The deficit was still just three points when Markwith registered an ace, and Portland was still within four late in the set. But once again the Toreros were able to close out the set to take a 2-0 overall lead.
 
San Diego claimed an early lead in the third set, but the Pilots had the answer in the form of a big-time solo block by Katie Sullivan and an ace from Djurdjina Milovic, which tied the score 5-5. The Pilots jumped ahead when San Diego followed a Liger kill with an attacking error and the lead grew to 11-9 after a swing from Lindburg resulted in a kill. The Pilots would maintain a two-point cushion for the next several points as Sullivan and Loper combined for a block and Sullivan and Markwith each recorded a kill, the latter making it an 18-16 game.
 
The Toreros then re-claimed the lead, but the Pilots refused to falter and jumped back in front 22-21 with consecutive kills from Sullivan and Lindburg. Back-to-back kills by Lindburg and Sarah Savoca then had the Pilots serving for set point and yet another clutch kill from Lindburg handed the Pilots the victory.
 
The fourth set belonged to the Toreros, who never trailed en route to the win.
 
Markwith, Savoca and Loper each totaled seven kills, while Sullivan added six. Katie Mardesich had 18 digs and Lindburg finished with 12. Portland totaled 10 blocks on the afternoon. 
 
The Pilots next wrap up the WCC portion of their schedule when they travel to Spokane, Wash., for a 7 p.m. match against Gonzaga on Tuesday night.