PORTLAND PILOTS (7-5, 0-1 WCC)
Portland Pilots vs. Pacific Tigers

Pacific Tigers
(9-4, 1-0 WCC)
Day: Saturday                  
Date: Sept. 24, 2022
Place: Portland, Ore.            
Time: 7:00 P.M.
Facility: Chiles Center            
Video: WCCSports.com
Stats: portlandpilots.com

POR vs. UOP   
Overall Series: 5-3          
Last: POR 1 - @UOP 3 (2021) 

THIS WEEK 
• The Pilots will continue their conference season later in the week against Pacific on Saturday at 7:00 p.m. 
• Live stats for each of the matches can be found at Portlandpilots.com, and live video for all matches will be available on WCCSports.com.

ABOUT THE PILOTS
• Megan Burton enters her third year as the head coach of the Pilots volleyball program, with assistant coaches Dylan Hamilton also returning for the 2022 season. Additionally, the Pilots welcome Kyle Homeyer as a new assistant coach for the 2022 season after serving as a volunteer coach in 2021. 
• The Pilots also bring back six letter winners from the fall 2021 season.
• The program welcomes seven true freshmen to The Bluff this fall in Maui Robins, Elin Larsson, Jordan Bardouche, Marleena Catalan, Lucia Busso, Larkin Chock, and Una Rajkovic.  
• Portland has also added three transfer students to their roster, including setter Talyn Jackson out of Virginia Tech, middle blocker Griselda Memia from American University and outside hitter Lia Hawken from Dayton University.
• Portland will be looking for leadership from returner Jayde Harris, as well as their transfers to create an exciting and dynamic offense this season. Harris led the team with 261 kills in 2021, which earned her all-WCC honors.
• Currently the Pilots have an overall record of 7-5 after a hard-fought five-set match against Saint Mary's. 
• Prior to the WCC opener, the Pilots won the Portland North Marriott Invitational. 
• This was the Pilot's second tournament win this season, making it the first time since 2018 that Portland has won more than one tournament in a season.
• Jayde Harris was named tournament MVP of the Portland North Marriott Invitational. Noelani Helm and Grace Zilbert were also named to the all-tournament team. 
• Jayde Harris was an all-tournament selectee for the Oregon State Invitational.
• The Pilots also competed in the Denver Invitational, where they finished with two wins and one loss.
• Prior to that, the Pilots competed in the Sacramento State Invitational, where they ultimately won the tournament overall. This was their first tournament win since 2019, earning three athletes all-tournament honors. 
• This included Noelani Helm (MVP), Maui Robins, and Jayde Harris.  
• The Pilots lead the WCC in aces per set (1.91), while also being ranked third in digs per set (13.84), fourth in team assists (512), third in team attacks per set (34.90), first in team digs (623), fifth in team kills (546), second in team service aces (86), fourth in team total attacks (1,517), and fifth in team blocks (90.5). 
• Noelani Helm is also the overall leader nationally and within the WCC for triple-doubles, sitting at four so far this season.
• Jayde Harris sits at fifth in the conference in attacks per set (9.98), fourth in points per set (4.50), third in total points (184.5) and fourth in kills per set (3.80). 
• Grace Zilbert is also ranked second overall in the conference for digs per set (4.05) 

ABOUT THE OPPONENTS 
• Pacific currently has an overall record of 9-4, and a conference record of 1-0. 
• Their team is led offensively by junior, Alexa Edwards who has 198 kills. She is followed by junior, Darina Kumanova Bane who has 110 kills so far this season. 
• Pacific is coming off of their recent tournament win at the Central Cal Challenge hosted by CSU Bakersfield. They came out on top of Sacramento State, CSU Bakersfield and Fresno State to take the tournament victory. 
• Pacific ranks first in the conference in team assists (633), team kills (678), team service aces (94) and team total attacks (1,731). They also rank second in aces per set (1.84).