SPOKANE, Wash. — Gonzaga volleyball put together a dominant first set in its return to West Coast Conference play Saturday afternoon at the Martin Centre, but Portland responded with three straight set wins en route to a four-set victory (25-18, 23-25, 25-15, 25-19).

Zoe Thiros matched a career-high with 22 kills and Kennedy Croft added nine of her own to lead seven Zags that recorded at least one, with both connecting on a pair of aces.

The Zags (4-13, 0-6 WCC) stormed out to a 6-0 lead in the first and didn't look back, hitting .484 in the process thanks to six kills from Thiros and five more from Croft to lead six different GU players who recorded at least one. The Zags led by as much as eight as their outsides went to work, stifling a late 4-0 UP rally to take a 1-0 lead.

After fending off an early surge from UP, GU led by as much as five in the second before a late rally from the Pilots threatened to equalize. Down 21-17 after back-to-back service aces from Croft, Portland scored six unanswered to go up 23-21, their largest lead of the day so far.

Even though Thiros responded with two straight kills to equalize, a service error and a big block from UP's J Harris and E Swett sunk GU's hopes of a clean sweep and tied things up at 1-all. The Pilots' momentum continued over the next two sets to close it out, finishing with a game-high .355 hitting percentage in set three with 13 kills and a game-high 18 kills in a decisive fourth set on .294 hitting.

The Bulldogs hit the road next weekend for a Bay Area road trip that includes a matchup with San Francisco () on Thursday at 7 p.m. and another with Santa Clara () on Saturday at 1 p.m. Live stats and streaming options will be available via GoZags.com. Follow @ZagVolleyball on IG and Twitter for updates and more.