Pilots vs. Virginia Tech, Friday 11/20, Merlo Field

#2 Seed Portland vs. #3 Seed Virginia Tech

* * *

Because it's never too early to start talking about the next game.

The Hokies beat Murray State 2-0 and Dayton 3-1 to reach the Sweet 16. They were forced to travel to Dayton for those games, so they may have a bit of a chip on their shoulders. They have an overall record of 16-7-0 (6-4-0 in the ACC)... against ranked opponents they have wins over North Carolina and Wake Forest (twice) and losses to Stanford, Florida State (twice), and Boston College.

It'll be on live TV!!! Here are the game details:

Portland (20-1-0) advances to the third round for the 10th consecutive season and will host third-seeded Virginia Tech on Friday, Nov. 20 at 7 p.m. live on Comcast SportsNet Northwest. The Hokies were 3-1 winners over Dayton on Sunday. Tickets will go on sale Wednesday, Nov. 18 at 11 a.m. through all Ticketmaster outlets, online at www.ticketmaster.com, over the phone at 1-800-745-3000, or in-person at the Pilot Box Office.

They beat NC? Was it a fluke or should I be really worried? Well, we are in 3rd round... of course I should be nervous!!!

When was the last time we played Virginia Tech?

ktinpurple wrote:
When was the last time we played Virginia Tech?

Never

That's a long time.

The only common opponent I see is Miami. We beat them 2-0 and they beat them 2-1. They must be twice as good as UNC as they beat High Point 2-0 (oh yeah, they did beat unc in the reg season too)

Well that's discouraging... We finally got to the round of 16, and our next opponent is a university that is literally nationally known for its Women's soccer... (I was not encouraged by the Wikipedia article about the University of Portland which mentioned Women's soccer in the very first freaking paragraph ).

Oh well, this year's VT team is pretty strong... we've beaten a few great teams, and put up a heck of a fight for most of the others. Maybe we'll surprise you! If not, I guess there is no shame in losing to a team with a tradition like Portland. Especially since we're so new to this sport (or rather new to the idea of serious competition in this sport).

It's on TV up there??? Man, we have to watch our games in 300x200 15 fps crappy webcasts... I bet our Comcast Sportsnet will carry reruns of Redskin's Nation or something... :p

Telionis wrote:Well that's discouraging... We finally got to the round of 16, and our next opponent is a university that is literally nationally known for its Women's soccer... (I was not encouraged by the Wikipedia article about the University of Portland which mentioned Women's soccer in the very first freaking paragraph ).

Oh well, this year's VT team is pretty strong... we've beaten a few great teams, and put up a heck of a fight for most of the others. Maybe we'll surprise you! If not, I guess there is no shame in losing to a team with a tradition like Portland. Especially since we're so new to this sport (or rather new to the idea of serious competition in this sport).

It's on TV up there??? Man, we have to watch our games in 300x200 15 fps crappy webcasts... I bet our Comcast Sportsnet will carry reruns of Redskin's Nation or something... :p

We are a tiny school, but it's fair to say that Women' soccer is the #1 sport on campus. We have hopes for our Basketball team this year, though.

My robot MAX and I were rooting for you guys a couple of weeks ago when you played FSU in the tournament.
FSUfan wasn't happy.



The Hokie cap stays in the closet this week, though.



we aren't sure if it will be on TV or not. Normally it's through stretchnet, but the NCAA's says we can't do that.

We got the Denver game on CCTV through the conference, but several people told me they couldn't get the UW game. That stuff might get clarified later in the Week.

Once is a while, the tournament games get picked up by Comcast NW, or a local channel. but I don't know...

I'll be watching it at Merlo under the canopy in my fur lined seat, catching the replays on the flop-down screens.

Here is Virginia Tech's regular season record, including the ACC tournament and its NCAA tournament games:

8/23/2009 vs. High Point 7-15-2 W 2-0
8/28/2009 at. Villanova 11-6-5 L 1-2
8/30/2009 vs. #Lehigh 9-4-5 W 1-0
9/4/2009 vs. #VCU 6-11-2 W 4-3
9/6/2009 vs. #Stanford 22-0-0 L 0-5
9/11/2009 vs. UNC Greensboro 13-7-0 W 4-0
9/13/2009 vs. College of Charleston 12-7-2 W 3-0
9/20/2009 vs. Davidson 12-9-1 W 3-2
9/24/2009 vs. *Clemson 3-15-0 W 2-1
9/27/2009 at. *North Carolina St. 8-9-2 W 3-0
9/30/2009 at. *Virginia 10-5-6 W 2-1
10/4/2009 vs. *North Carolina 19-3-1 W 1-0
10/11/2009 at. *Maryland 14-5-2 L 1-3
10/14/2009 vs. Longwood 9-8-1 W 3-0
10/18/2009 vs. *Boston College 17-3-2 L 0-1
10/22/2009 at. *Wake Forest 15-5-2 W 4-3
10/25/2009 at. *Duke 8-8-4 L 1-4
10/30/2009 vs. *Miami (Fla.) 8-10-1 W 2-1
11/1/2009 vs. *Florida St. 18-4-1 L 1-2
11/4/2009 vs. #*Wake Forest 15-5-2 W 1-0
11/6/2009 vs. #*Florida St. 18-4-1 L 0-2
11/13/2009 vs. #Murray State 11-9-2 W 2-0
11/15/2009 at. Dayton 16-1-5 W 3-1

I just realized we have something besides next week's game we share with V Tech.

We both have a Paplin school of business. Same family, too.

Pamplin, I believe.

Geezaldinho wrote:I just realized we have something besides next week's game we share with V Tech.

We both have a Pamplin school of business. Same family, too.

fixed, dammit

Hey, Telionis, welcome to PilotNation.

I'm wondering if there's a VT women's soccer blog we could visit. I found the Virginia Tech fan blog, but I don't know if your women's soccer fans use it.

PilotNation people, I think you'll enjoy the opening paragraph from the VT fan blog:

"Thanks for visiting VirginiaTechFan.com. This site is run purely by Virginia Tech fans who like to share their opinions, thoughts, emotions, and internet tips with other Hokies. We are VT alums who are passionate about Hokie sports, whether its Virginia Tech Football, Virginia Tech Basketball, Virginia Tech Baseball, or even sports like Virginia Tech Softball, Soccer, Women's Basketball, and others if we're in the mood."

I suspect it is 97% VA Tech Football!

I noticed that the Portlandpilots.com article had this quote, for you out of towners

Portland (20-1-0) advances to the third round for the 10th consecutive season and will host third-seeded Virginia Tech on Friday, Nov. 20 at 7 p.m. live on Comcast SportsNet Northwest.

Hello Telionis - Congratulations on reaching the round of 16. Good to see another Easterner here. We have regular contributors who are also Penn State and Fla. State fans. I am a Syracuse fan, but (as you know) that is pretty much like being a masochist, except for the roundball game.

This is a great site - I really enjoy it. There are many knowledgeable contributors and lots of humor. I also like being an eastern contributor, because I can get on in the mornings and post uninterrupted while the west coasters are still sleeping, except Geezer, who doesn't ever seem to sleep and can post at any time. It seems that lots of us posters are retired and probably have nothing better to do, so we post a lot.

I get out to Portland once a year for a few games. Otherwise, I follow the team from a distance. Portlanders (Portlandites?) who see all or most of the games in person could probably do a better job of describing the team, but I'll give you a few opinions. The city of Portland is a soccer hot bed, and the Pilots usually leads the nation in attendance, so your girls can expect an exciting experience, and probably a cold one - if you are coming, bring layers. Your team can expect to be chasing a lot - the Pilots stress ball possession and lots of short passes, and they are VERY good at it. We have an extremely well-balanced team without a real go-to star - all of our front 5 are serious scoring threats, as are the outside defenders. We have good speed around the outside and rock solid play in the middle, led by a Canadian National team member and the captain of the US U-18 (?) team. Our goalie is 2nd team all-american.

So, good luck (not really) and congratulations again.

up7587 wrote:I suspect it is 97% VA Tech Football!

Indeed. Why wouldn't it be? You guys are just as guilty of favoring the sport your school is really good at:

Look at this forum:
Posts in M Basketball: 6,941
Posts in W Basketball: 283
Posts in M Soccer: 1,183
Posts in W Soccer: 13,221 <<
Posts in Baseball: 167

Every now and then we do really well in another sport... Men's Soccer in 2007, Softball in 2008 (beat the US Olympic team!, their first loss in 200+ games), and our men's basketball is decent... but we are a football school through and through.

Also, we have a couple of top-notch bench players, one who was all-conference and scored both goals yesterday and one who had a goal and assist on Friday, both impressive.

Telionis wrote:

up7587 wrote:I suspect it is 97% VA Tech Football!

Indeed. Why wouldn't it be? You guys are just as guilty of favoring the sport your school is really good at:

Look at this forum:
Posts in M Basketball: 6,941
Posts in W Basketball: 283
Posts in M Soccer: 1,183
Posts in W Soccer: 13,221 <<
Posts in Baseball: 167

Every now and then we do really well in another sport... Men's Soccer in 2007, Softball in 2008 (beat the US Olympic team!, their first loss in 200+ games), and our men's basketball is decent... but we are a football school through and through.

Well, you have to factor out the posts that devolved into discussions about beer.

up7587 wrote:

Telionis wrote:

up7587 wrote:I suspect it is 97% VA Tech Football!

Indeed. Why wouldn't it be? You guys are just as guilty of favoring the sport your school is really good at:

Look at this forum:
Posts in M Basketball: 6,941
Posts in W Basketball: 283
Posts in M Soccer: 1,183
Posts in W Soccer: 13,221 <<
Posts in Baseball: 167

Every now and then we do really well in another sport... Men's Soccer in 2007, Softball in 2008 (beat the US Olympic team!, their first loss in 200+ games), and our men's basketball is decent... but we are a football school through and through.

Well, you have to factor out the posts that devolved into discussions about beer.

Beer is completely it's own category, and the women's soccer posts will continue to grow in the coming weeks. It will either be celebratory posts or what ifs about Enyeart and everything else. One great thing is that possibly our two biggest sports right now women's soccer and men's basketball have seasons that don't overlap. So, hopefully even if our basketball team keeps improving, we will continue to lead the nation in attendance for women's soccer.

--------------------------------------------------------

Random question for PN administrators/moderators: Why doesn't cross-country get it's own posting category? Why is it categorized as one of the "other sports" when we've had so much success for about 30 years now in the WCC and are now establishing national prominence?

I just received the following via email:

PILOTS HOST NCAA PLAYOFFS!

The Pilot Women’s Soccer advances to the third round of the NCAA Playoffs after beating Denver 4-0 on Friday and defeating Washington 2-1 on Sunday. The Pilots host Virginia Tech on Merlo Field this Friday, Nov. 20 at 7:00pm Full Story

FRIDAY 11/20 –3rd ROUND GAME
Portland vs. Virginia Tech

Merlo Field – 7:00pm
>>Pre-game chili bar beginning at 5:30pm in the tent at the Chiles Center Plaza. Artisan chili, beer & soda will be available for purchase.

All tickets will be available for purchase on Wednesday, Nov. 18 at 11:00am, through Ticketmaster outlets or in-person at the Pilot Box Office (11 a.m.-5 p.m. and 60 minutes prior to start times). For more information, call Beth Connell at 503.943.7525.


Artisan chili?

Is it a good idea to feed "artisan" chili to that many people, who will then all be sitting in close proximity to each other for a couple hours afterwards?

This will bring a whole new level of intimidation to Merlo Field...

fan from afar wrote:This is a great site - I really enjoy it. There are many knowledgeable contributors and lots of humor. I also like being an eastern contributor, because I can get on in the mornings and post uninterrupted while the west coasters are still sleeping, except Geezer, who doesn't ever seem to sleep and can post at any time. It seems that lots of us posters are retired have Pilot OCD and probably have nothing better to do, so we post a lot.

Fixed.

On Call Daily?

UPSoccerFanatic wrote:I just received the following via email:

PILOTS HOST NCAA PLAYOFFS!

The Pilot Women’s Soccer advances to the third round of the NCAA Playoffs after beating Denver 4-0 on Friday and defeating Washington 2-1 on Sunday. The Pilots host Virginia Tech on Merlo Field this Friday, Nov. 20 at 7:00pm Full Story

FRIDAY 11/20 –3rd ROUND GAME
Portland vs. Virginia Tech

Merlo Field – 7:00pm
>>Pre-game chili bar beginning at 5:30pm in the tent at the Chiles Center Plaza. Artisan chili, beer & soda will be available for purchase.

All tickets will be available for purchase on Wednesday, Nov. 18 at 11:00am, through Ticketmaster outlets or in-person at the Pilot Box Office (11 a.m.-5 p.m. and 60 minutes prior to start times). For more information, call Beth Connell at 503.943.7525.


Artisan chili?

Does anybody else out there miss the "Bluff's Best Bar-b-que"? I tried some of the stuff they had Friday night before the DU game and it just wasn't the same and, frankly, artisan chili worries me. And what's up with only serving an IPA? Does the Pilot Club serve better/more options than the pre-game tent? If so, then maybe it's time to upgrade my fan status.