Box Score PORTLAND, Ore. --- The Portland Pilots hosted the Santa Clara Broncos in their second to last home match of the regular season. The Broncos won in three sets, with set scores of 25-18, 30-28 and 25-23.
Senior Shayla Hoeft led the Pilots in kills with seven, while adding two block assists. Junior Kellie Hughes had 15 assists & eight digs, while junior Carey Williams led the match with 18 digs.
Portland (11-14, WCC 3-11) out dug Santa Clara (17-10, WCC 7-7) by 49-46, with Williams showing why she leads the West Coast Conference in digs and digs per set.
The match began with the Broncos establishing the tempo with a 10-4 run, forcing an early Pilots timeout. Portland made a late 7-3 run to cut Santa Clara's lead to 22-16, with help from kills from Hoeft, senior Katie Barker and junior Kassidy Naone. The Broncos recovered, with redshirt senior Taylor Odom rising for a solo block to cap the first set at 25-18 Santa Clara.
Riding their momentum, Santa Clara once again begun the set with an extended run of success: a kill from senior Alexa Dryer pushed their lead to 10-5. Portland refused to allow the Broncos to get out of reach. Down to their last point, the Pilots made their move, going on a 7-0 run to take the lead at 25-24. Hoeft was huge for the Pilots rally, grabbing six kills and a block to keep the Pilots in the set. With Portland up 28-27, the Broncos would finish the set on a 3-0 run, taking the second at 30-28.
The third set was close throughout, as neither team could separate themselves. The Broncos stroke first, going on a 4-0 run to turn the score from 17-17 to 21-17 Santa Clara. Despite a late service error from the Broncos tying the set at 22-22, a 3-1 run completed the sweep for Santa Clara, taking the match at 25-23.
Next up for the Pilots is Portland's Senior Day match against the San Francisco Dons. The Pilots will be honoring seniors Katie Barker, Shayla Hoeft and Emma Scanlan's contributions to the program on November 16th, at noon in the Chiles Center.
