FRESNO, Calif. --- The Portland Pilots opened up their first match of the Fresno Classic with a 3-1 win over the Fresno State Bulldogs. Emily Liger led Portland to their ninth win in a row with 28 kills on Friday morning in the Save Mart Center.  
 
Portland (9-1) earns their best start in program history with set scores of 29-27, 22-25, 25-17, and 25-16.
 
Portland maintained a slim advantage over Fresno State (6-6) through the majority of the first set. The Bulldogs went on a 5-0 run late in the set to put the home squad ahead of the Pilots 24-23. Portland turned away the first set point and tied play at 24. Liger then set the Pilots up for a set point of their own at 25-24, but Fresno State kept the set alive with a kill by Aleisha Coates. The Bulldogs held off three more Portland set points before Sarah Savoca and Hannah Troutman strung a pair of points together to give the Pilots the match lead 1-0.
 
The Pilots earned a.372 hitting percentage in the first and were led by Liger who had 8 kills on a .500 hitting percentage.
 
The Bulldogs responded in the second and jumped out to an early 6-3 lead. Djurdjina Milovic and Liger combined to pull the Pilots within one at 9-10, but this sparked a four point Fresno State run that landed them ahead by five at 14-9. Portland went on a late 8-2 run to cut the Bulldog lead to one at 23-22. Fresno State looked to avoid what happened in the first set as they scored the next two points to win the set and tie up the match 1-1. Liger had six kills during the second set.
 
Liger and Makayla Lindburg combined for a block to tie the third set at 6 which was just one play of a nine point run with Troutman serving that set the Pilots ahead of the Bulldogs by seven. Portland continued to control the set as they earned the biggest lead of the match, thus far, for either side at 16-7.The Pilots fought off a couple of short Bulldog runs before taking the third set 25-17. Liger had another eight kills during the set to bring her total to 22 on the match.
 
Troutman kept the Pilots rolling in the fourth by scoring the first point and sending Portland on to an early 3-0 lead. The Pilots did not relinquish the lead and would go on to top the Bulldogs 3-1 with a 25-16 win in the fourth. Liger added six kills to her total and ended the match with a .373 hitting percentage.  

Portland had nine blocks during the match and were led by Liger who combined on five of them and had one solo block. 
 
The Pilots will return to the Save Mart Center for tonight's match against the UC Davis Aggies at 5:00 p.m.