Volleyball off to a great start

After this morning's victory, the volleyball team is 5-1. Congratulations on starting the season in such a positive manner.

It's great to finally see some success with this program... Coach Crouch is doing a nice job of changing the culture and bringing in some talent!

And the best Pilot team of the fall season is . . . Volleyball?!?!?!

Good for them.  It must take an inordinate amount of character to so dramatically shift to winning ways.  These have been close back-and-forth games that last year would have been losses.

Yes, so far, the best Pilot team is volleyball. League play is always wicked, but I think they'll win a few more in the WCC this year.

However, the best team of the fall season, as has been the case for the past few years, will be men's cross country. They won't finish 3rd in the nation like they did last year, but I wouldn't be shocked if they returned to nationals and were able to finish in the top 20 in the national meet. Now that men's and women's soccer are no longer elite programs, it is men's cross country that is the top achieving program in the athletic department over the past half-decade or so.

The Pilots VB team is now 8-1 after hosting & winning their tournament this weekend... congrats Pilots!  

By the way, the Pilots beat Cal Poly in 5 sets to win the tournament... CP was also 7-1 heading into that match.

The team heads to Fresno next weekend to take on Fresno St, UC-Davis & Southern Utah.

Great job by the volleyball team! The AD brought in a dynamic coach who seems to be succeeding in changing the culture of the program.

The Pilots just beat Fresno State 3-1, in Fresno!  (29-27, 22-25, 25-17, 25-16).

This improves the record to 9-1 on the year!  

Next up: Pilots vs. UC Davis, tonight, 5:00pm.  Live stats and video stream will be available from www.portlandpilots.com (see "upcoming events" towards the bottom of the page).

10-1!  

Pilots beat UC-Davis 3-1, and are in the midst of a 10-match win streak!

Well, it had to end at some point.  Southern Utah ended the Pilots 10-match streak this morning in straight sets 17-25, 21-25, 25-27 to close out the Fresno tourney.  The little bit that I saw showed the Pilots all out of sorts, so hopefully they got that all out of the way in this match.  

The Pilots are now 10-2, and head home to open WCC play on Thursday, 7pm vs. SMC and Saturday, noon vs. Pacific.  This is where the schedule gets much more challenging...  the WCC is a VERY strong conference in volleyball.

I've seen a handful of games this year. In comparing this year's team with last's, I see two significant positives. (These are based on my observations, not the stats.)

• Many fewer unforced errors. Serves are generally in the court; when there's a free ball coming over, it's not mis-passed; etc.
  
• Hannah Troutman is a quite a player. The transfer from OSU is not only a solid hitter, but is also a talented backcourt player. Her serve-receives have been exceptional. DJ is getting better passes this year, and Hannah has a lot to do with that.