by Malika Andrews |
The Pilots built on a dream preseason as they swept the Idaho Vandals in their second win of the 2015 North Harbor Marriot Invitational. The Pilots are riding a seven game winning streak and sit at 7-1 on the season.
“I think teams look at our record and are surprised,” junior setter Djurdjina Milovic said. “They don’t expect us to have such a good record. It feels so good. When other teams look at our record, they should be scared.”
Sophomore Hannah Troutman and junior Makayla Lindburg began the first set where they left off yesterday, putting up a block to put the Pilots on the board first. After trading points back and forth, Idaho’s Katelyn Peterson served into the net. This allowed the Pilots to go on a 4-0 run and go up 8-3.
The battle continued to the end of the first set. Idaho was able to pull within one, but back-to-back kills from sophomores Sarah Savoca and Troutman gave the Pilots a 21-19. Portland went on to take the first set 25-22.
The scoreboard was tied multiple times early on the second set. With the match tied at 7, the Pilots went on an 8-0 run before Idaho called a timeout with the Pilots leading 15-7. Senior Emily Liger served an ace out of the timeout. Liger had three aces on the set and put down six kills. The Pilots went on to dominate the second half of the set and win 25-14. Pilots clocked in with a 71 attack percentage to Idaho’s 40 percent.
The Pilots built an 11-6 lead in the third set. A service error by Portland’s junior Monica Gajda gave the Vandals what they needed to go on a 7-0 run to put Idaho up by one. Milovic put up a block to tie the set at 16. The teams traded points back and forth, tying again at 23. Portland would fight to win the set 25-23.
“Today was better than yesterday,” Milovic said. “I connected with outsides well and I had a kill! I like that, especially because I can’t really block anything.”
Liger led the match with 15 kills and 3 aces. Troutman followed with 9 kills and 6 blocks for Portland. Lindburg and Troutman’s five combined blocks earned them the nickname “swat team” by the student section.
Milovic says tonight’s 7:00 p.m. match against Cal Poly will give the team an idea of how they will match up against teams in their conference. Her mindset going into the game, she says, is to stay focused.
“I think Caly Poly will be interesting,” Milovic said. “I think they are on the level of teams in the West Coast Conference. So, I am really excited to play this game and see how we will compete.”
Malika Andrews is the sports editor for The Beacon. She can be reached at andrewsm17@up.edu or on Twitter @malika_andrews.
