Portland, Ore. - Finishing off a 13-match road trip to begin the 2015 season, the battle-tested #23 ranked Tigers came up with a hard-fought, 3-1, win over Portland on Saturday afternoon to improve to 10-3 on the season. The win for the Tigers moved their WCC record to 1-1 and marked the seventh-straight win over the Pilots who fell to 11-3 on the year and 1-1 in conference play.

Set scores for the match were: 25-21, 25-21, 16-25, 25-23.

Working the pins from the outset, the Tigers took control of the opening set and never let up despite a pesky Pilot team that would not give up. In a reversal of the match from Thursday night, the opening set at the Chiles Center was all about offense as both teams hovered around the .300 mark for the entire set. Led by their ace, Pacific was able to outpoint the Pilots as junior Lexi Elman came up with seven kills on 14 attacks, starting the match off 4-for-4 in the front row to establish the early lead that would hold up despite a late run by the Pilots. Using an offense mainly consisting of tips, the Pilots were able to cut into a seven-point Tiger lead late, making it a 23-20 contest before Elman could end the madness with her seventh kill of the stanza.

Picking up where they left off after changing sides of the court, the Tigers' pins again took control of the net as the sophomores punished the Portland defense with kills. After grabbing five kills in the first set, Maycie LaBass came out firing in the second as the second-year attacker tallied three of her set-best seven kills while Alex Holt added a pair to push the Tigers to a quick 5-1 lead in the frame. Despite the hot start, the Pilots would respond with a 6-1 run of their own, turning the set into a back-and-forth fight until the Tigers shook off the Pilots with four-straight points to make it an 18-15 Tiger lead. During the run, the Tigers picked up a big triple block out of Elman, Kimmy Whitson, and freshman Lauren Cline, who made her first career start for the Tigers in place of their injured senior Holland Crenshaw.

After having their way offensively against the Pilots in the first two sets of the afternoon, the Tigers found trouble in the third as Portland used the 10-minute break to adjust defensively and change the momentum of the match. Running out to a quick 8-3 lead, the Pilots never faltered, using eight total blocks to run away with nine-point win in the set despite just eight kills offensively. All six of the Pilots' front row players came up with a block in the set while Makayla Lindburg led the efforts as she put her hands on half of the Pilots total blocks in the set. 

Finding themselves in a dogfight, the Tigers looked to rebound and put the Pilots away in the fourth set. Out of the gate, the Tigers picked up back-to-back blocks by Cline, along side of Whitson and then Elman, as Pacific tried to turn the tables on the Pilots. In addition to the early defensive efforts, Pacific looked to reestablish Elman on the pin as she came up with four early kills to put the Tigers ahead. Despite the efforts, the Pilots continued to press, finding their block once again. After back-to-back Pilot blocks put the Tigers behind 13-12 midway through the set, Elman took back control with her own flurry of offense, scoring a pair of kills before the media timeout as Pacific used 3-0 spurt to grab back the lead. The lead would hold momentarily for Pacific, but with a chance to put the match away, the Tigers committed a handful of unforced mistakes giving the Pilots the chance to hang close. With the match on the line, Pacific would stay calm and look towards their leader to finish the win off as Elman buried a pair of kills to give the Tigers set point before Holt ended the match with a kill on an overpass.  

In total, Elman led all attackers with 25 kills, picking up 10 in the critical fourth set to stave off Portland's attempted rally. The 25 kills marked the fifth time on the year the junior put up 20+ kills as she finished hitting a healthy .309 on 55 swings. 

Right behind the junior, the Tigers' sophomore pin-hitters, LaBass and Holt each came up with career days at the net as LaBass buried 16 kills to go with nine blocks while Holt produced 13 kills on .333 hitting. Senior captain Kimmy Whitson came up with her first double-double of the season with 52 assists to go with 14 digs, one off of her career high. She also added a pair of kills to go with a team-best four blocks. Pacific's defensive specialists, Katrin Gotterba and Mia Feiner, tallied 27 combined digs with Gotterba posting a match-best 17 from her libero position. 

On the other side of the net, the Pilots listed a trio of hitters with 12 kills a piece as Emily Liger (.367), Sarah Savoca (.345), and Hannah Troutman (.159) all took home the dozen. As a team, the Pilots produced 14.0 total blocks against the Tigers led by Brittney Markwith who tallied seven in the middle.

While hitting just .212 in the match to the Pilots' .288, the Tigers were able to come away with the victory marking the first time in over a calendar year Pacific took a victory despite being out-hit by their opponent.

The Tigers will finally come home for the first time in 2015 on Tuesday, Sept. 29 when Pacific hosts San Francisco in WCC action at the Alex G. Spanos Center. The match is scheduled for 7:00 pm and is available on PacificTigers.com and theW.tv.