Portland, Ore. - Dominating the net on both sides, the Tiger volleyball team came up with a quick 3-0 victory at Portland on Saturday, Oct. 18. The win gave the Tigers (16-5) their 16th victory of the season which surpassed their win total from a season ago. In WCC play, the Tigers remained in third place at 5-2 while the Pilots dropped to 0-8 in conference play and 5-14 on the year.

Set scores for the match were: 25-18, 25-14, 25-11.

After needing a few points to get their feet wet, the Tigers jumped headfirst into the match as they broke the first set open with a 6-1 run that turned a 6-6 set into a comfortable 12-7 lead. The Tigers used their quicker block to frustrate the Pilot attack as Pacific pulled away for a comfortable opening win by holding Portland to just .024 hitting. Offensively, the Tigers picked up just enough offense to do the job as junior Kat Schulz came up with five of Pacific's 11 kills in the set while senior Gillian Howard added three on six swings to go along with a single block.

Repeating the process in set two, the Tigers need some time to get going in set two as the offense struggled early while Pacific trailed 10-8. Despite the early mistakes, the Tigers found their stride, rolling off seven-straight points to break away from the Pilots as Pacific took control of the middle of the net. During the run, Howard put down two of her four set kills to spark the offense. Following the lead, sophomore Alicja Wilk dominated late as the second-year middle threw down six kills as the Tigers ran way with the win.

Continuing the formula that had worked so well before the intermission, the Tigers went back to the script a third time to finish off the match. Close through the first handful of points, the Tigers turned the final set into a blowout as Howard and Wilk closed off the middle while Schulz dominated the pins. 

Overall, Howard put together her third-straight stellar effort as the fourth-year middle led the way with 12 kills on .611 hitting (12-1-18). She added four blocks and even posted one assist for good measure. When Howard was out, Wilk went to work as she finished 10-1-16 (.562) while tallying a pair of blocks and three digs. On the pins, Schulz ended her day with 11 kills on .370 hitting to go along with eight digs. Defensively, junior Mia Feiner led the way with 14 digs while junior Kimmy Whitson chipped in four blocks to go with 18 assists, two aces, and four digs.

As a team, the Tigers outhit the Pilots .306 (44-11-108) to .009 (23-22-109) as Portland just narrowly avoided becoming the sixth team on the year to be held to sub-.000 hitting.

The Tigers are back home to close out the first half of WCC play with San Francisco on Thursday, Oct. 24. The two teams meet at the Spanos Center at 7:00 pm.