PORTLAND, ORE. --- The Portland Pilots recorded their fifth sweep of the season over the UTEP Miners in their second match of the Nike Invitational, Friday evening in the Chiles Center. The Pilots powered through three sets with scores of 24-22, 25-13, and 25-15.

The Miners (3-8) took an early 4-1 lead before senior Hannah Troutman sparked a run to take back the lead at 5-4. Junior Reghan Pukis then added back-to-back kills to pull away by two, followed by two more kills from freshman Katie Barker, and senior Sarah Savoca to make it 13-8. Several points later, Briana Arellano and Amanda King put together a run to close the point deficit, but Portland (8-3) continued to hold their lead and push towards final points of the set. Mallory Yost attempted to contain the Pilots with two kills, but Freshman Liz Reich and Troutman sealed the set with kills of their own to take the first set 25-22.

Portland jumped to a 4-0 lead to start the second set, headed by two aces from sophomore Cali Thompson and a kill from Barker. The Pilots continued to surge ahead to 10-4 before Arellano put together a pair of kills to slow Portland's momentum. Pukis and Troutman responded by each adding another kill and Savoca and Barker a block, to force UTEP to take a timeout. Several points later Reich and Savoca added two more points, prompting Troutman to produce a powerful kill to claim the second set 25-13.  

Both teams fought evenly to start the final set, until Troutman put together back-to-back kills, along with Reich to pull ahead of UTEP 8-4. Troutman, Reich, and Pukis continued to push against UTEP with kills moving the Pilots ahead 15-9. Yost and Arellano broke up Portland points with kills, to make it 21-15, but Pukis and Barker claimed the last four points to complete the match sweep.

Troutman led the Pilots with a double-double of 12 kills and 16 digs. Pukis was just behind her with 10 kills. Senior Morgan Robinson also registered 16 digs and Thompson had 32 assists.

The Pilots will compete in the final match of the Nike Invitational Saturday afternoon at 2:00 p.m., against the CSUN Matadors.