PORTLAND, Ore. --- The Portland Pilots women's basketball team officially tipped off the 2018-19 campaign with their first practice, which happened on Monday at the Chiles Center. Portland's opening game of the season is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 10 when they travel to Utah Valley to battle the Wolverines.
 
Head coach Cheryl Sorenson returns for her fifth year at the helm of the program, and is joined on her staff by assistants Steve Lowe, Skylar Young, and Tiffany Gibson. Young and Gibson are in their first years as assistant coaches with the Pilots, as is new director of operations Alex Brown.
 
The Pilots return the bulk of their roster from last year, which includes 10 players and redshirt-freshman Erika Kankfelt. The Pilots also feature their top three scorers from a year ago in senior guard Darian Slaga, senior forward Julie Spencer, and junior guard Kate Andersen. Slaga and Spencer both averaged double digits in scoring in 2017-18, putting up 12.6 and 11.0 points per contest, respectively. Spencer was also Portland's leading rebounder at 6.9 boards per game.
 
New to The Bluff are four freshmen as Elena Alaix (Madrid, Spain), Haylee Andrews (Townsville, Australia), Liana Kaitu'u (Salt Lake City, Utah), and Shasta Parker (Novato, Calif.) are in their first year with the Pilots.
 
Before opening the regular season on the road, the Pilots will face Puget Sound in an exhibition game on Saturday, Nov. 3 at the Chiles Center. Their official home opener is set for Saturday, Nov. 24 against Cal State Fullerton.