Portland Pilots (4-7, 1-1 WCC)
vs. Pacific and Saint Mary's
Pacific Tigers (4-10, 1-2 WCC)
Day: Thursday
Date: Sept. 30, 2021
Place: Portland, Ore.
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Facility: Chiles Center
Stats: portlandpilots.com
Video: portlandpilots.com
POR vs. UOP
Overall Series: 3-13
H: 2-5 •
A: 1-7 •
N: 0-1
Last: POR 1, @UOP 3 (11.9.19)
Saint Mary's Gaels (7-5, 1-2 WCC)
Day: Saturday
Date: Oct. 2, 2021
Place: Portland, Ore.
Time: 12:00 p.m.
Facility: Chiles Center
Stats: portlandpilots.com
Video: portlandpilots.com
POR vs. SMC
Overall Series: 26-46
H: 15-20 •
A: 11-26 •
N: 0-0
Last: POR 0, @SMC 3 (2.24.21)
THIS WEEK
• The Pilots are back at home for two more West Coast Conference matches against Pacific and Saint Mary's.
• Portland will face off with the Tigers for the first time since 2019 on Thursday, September 30 at 6:00 p.m.
• The Pilots will then welcome the Gaels to the Chiles Center on Saturday, October 2 at 12:00 p.m.
• Live stats and live video for both matches will be available at PortlandPilots.com.
LAST WEEK
• The Pilots split their first pair of WCC matches, sweeping the Gonzaga Bulldogs on Saturday before No. 23 Pepperdine held them off on Tuesday in Malibu.
• The 3-0 victory over the Zags marks Portland's first WCC sweep since 2019, when the Pilots beat GU 3-0 at the Chiles Center on October 26th of that year.
ABOUT THE PILOTS
• Megan Burton enters her second year as the head coach of the Pilots volleyball program, with assistant coaches Aven Lee and Dylan Hamilton also returning for the 2021 season.
• The Pilots also bring back seven letter winners from the spring 2021 West Coast Conference season.
• The program welcomes four true freshmen to The Bluff this fall in Alyssa Muraoka, Gabby Quach, Emma Swett, and Keilani Mumolo.
• Portland has also added two graduate students to their roster, including outside hitter Charity Bradley out of Washington State and setter Paloma Bowman from UC Davis.
• The Pilots saw three significant contributors graduate at the end of last year in setter Kellie Hughes, All-WCC outside hitter Liz Reich, and second-place all-time career digs leader Carey Williams.
• Portland will look to outside hitters Jayde Harris and Jiana Lawson to provide the attack this season, and Harris has been the team's most productive scorer so far, leading the team with 114 kills while averaging 3.06 per set.
• Through 11 matches so far, the team has produced averages of 10.97 kills per set and 10.08 assists per set.
• Noelani Helm leads the Pilots in assists with 183, and is second on the team in kills with 58.
• Grace Zibert is Portland's team leader in digs, with 112 to her credit.
ABOUT THE OPPONENTS
• Pacific is 1-2 in WCC action, with those losses coming by sweeps at No. 10 BYU and No. 25 San Diego.
• The Tigers most recently defeated San Francisco 3-1 at home on Tuesday.
• Alexa Edwards leads Pacific in kills with 209, which ranks third in the conference, and the outside hitter currently sits fourth in the WCC in kills per set, averaging 4.02.
• Jaydn Tubbs' team-high 229 digs makes her the WCC individual leader in the category, and she also ranks second in the conference in digs per set, generating 4.40 thus far.
• Jenna Heller is the Tigers' team-leader in assists with 339 on the year.
• Saint Mary's enters the week 1-2 in league play, sitting just beneath the Pilots in sixth-place in WCC standings.
• SMC also took sweeps at San Diego and BYU, but is coming off of a five-set win over Santa Clara on Tuesday night.
• The Gaels are led by Elena Baka's team-high 120 kills, with Chandler Cowell also contributing 111 attacks as the team's second-highest scorer.
• Jennifer Laird's .366 hitting percentage and 1.26 blocks per set average both rank third in the conference, and she has already accumulated 54 total blocks for SMC during the 2021 fall season.
