PORTLAND, Ore. --- The Portland Pilots volleyball team battled through five close sets with New Mexico, topping the tournament host 3-2 on Friday night in the Johnson Center. The Pilots fought through the sets with scores 19-25, 30-28, 24-26, 25-22, and 10-15.

"Tough match tonight," said head coach Brent Crouch. "Our team played with great energy and effort in a hostile environment, but we had difficult navigating our serves at this high elevation and hurt ourselves with errors. I'm very encouraged, however, as I'm confident we can get that back in control, and there was a lot of great things to be proud of in other areas of our game. I know we have improved since last week, and see more in our future."

Both teams were evenly matched through all five sets, with each claiming a set one after the other leading up to the fifth. After New Mexico took the first set, Portland responded by taking the second, pushing the score to extra points. Junior Reghan Pukis came up big with two kills to bring the Pilots ahead two of the Lobos, claiming the second set.

New Mexico then answered by securing the third set to put them up 2-1 overall, again pushing the set to extra points. Portland then took the fourth set to even the match 2-2. Taking back the lead at 17-16 in the fourth, senior Hannah Troutman and Pukis recorded kills to bring the Pilots within the final points to claim the set 25-22.

The final set consisted of the two teams fighting for points, neck-and-neck before the Lobos would break free with a short point run headed by back-to-back kills from Lauren Twitty. Though Pukis and sophomore Cali Thompson attempted to close the deficit and prompt a last minute comeback, UNM continued to surge with a final four-point run to take the set 15-10.

Four Pilots produced double digit kills in the match, including Pukis with 16, sophomore Katie Barker with 16, Troutman with 14, and freshman Liz Reich with 12. Troutman recorded her second double-double of the tournament with the addition of 15 digs. Freshman Carey Williams and McKenzie Schwan also recorded double digit digs with 22 and 11, respectively. Thompson ended the night with 55 assists.

The Pilots will next be in action tomorrow morning at 10:45 a.m., for their final match of the Lobos Classic against UT Arlington.