After 12 years of primary and secondary school in Vienna, Austria, senior forward Pia Jurhar was simultaneously pursing her passions, the law and basketball.
 
Law is an undergraduate degree in Austria, so she had enrolled in the four-year degree program. At the same time, though, she had played basketball on a high level (the FIBA Senior Women's National Team which won the European Championship for Small Countries) and wanted to leave an option open to play more. So, she continued working with one of her club coaches.
 
Jurhar was working on "finishing, going to the basket and on being more explosive and deliberate in my movement"…just to keep her options open.
 
Finally, the siren song of continued basketball became too strong. "I thought I could play more basketball and still go to law school, but if I went to law school I would be unable to have this experience and play at this level," Jurhar said.
 
Her trip to Portland began when a friend, another Austrian player who now plays in Florida, introduced her to someone who worked with people interested in playing in the U.S.
 
Through that contact, then first-year Viking Coach Lynn Kennedy heard that there was this 6-3 Austrian player who'd played at a high level in Europe and was looking at the possibility of playing in the United States and made contact.
 
She heard from schools in the Midwest, East Coast and the South, but decided Kennedy's approach to the game interested her more.
 
"She was in law school and the question was whether or not she'd come to the U.S. to play at all," Kennedy said of Jurhar. "She chose to come here and she was able to play right away. I think Portland was a good fit for her."
 
Indeed both the Viking program and Portland were good fits, although she admits sheepishly that she'd never heard of the Rose City prior to her contact with coach Kennedy.
 
"I liked the idea because it was in a city, not a big city like Chicago or New York with sky scrapers, cities which I like. But [Portland] has a real flair, the food culture, the feel…it's more like home," she said.
 
Besides her international experience, Kennedy liked her height.
 
"When I got here, we had no post players. We needed one right away. I contacted Pia and she liked the direction we were going," Kennedy recalled.
 
As a freshman, Jurhar started every game. But, it was a transitional season and the Vikings won only four games.
 
"As a freshman, it was great playing a lot, but when you only win four games, it still hurts," she said.
 
As a sophomore Jurhur started coming off the bench.
 
"That first year, we built our offense around her and Corey (James…the only two holdovers from that first year). But, we knew we had redshirts coming in so we had a good core. That first year she played a lot of minutes. I give her a lot of credit. She's come off the bench for us since that first year. She's been an essential part of our success. She's so steady and brings a lot of intensity to game and to practice. She's been a real team player," Kennedy said.
 
For her part, Jurhur said she wasn't thrilled about losing her starting position. "Obviously, it was difficult and nobody likes to lose their starting spot. But I think just being here and being able to play and to play with these girls is a lot more important. I think it was important to keep doing my best and I think I transitioned well into the role (Kennedy agreed). I'm just glad to be part of the team and to support in whatever way I can," she said…a team player, indeed.
 
There's a big emotional difference between winning and losing, she said. "It's harder to stay together as a team when you're not doing well...and losing…well, you think…'Oh, we lost. Well it's just another loss'. But, when you're winning it's easier to work through things. We have more confidence. If we lose, our attitude is that we'll win the next one."
 
Jurhur will graduate this spring with degrees in Management and Leadership and Human Resources Management. Her cumulative GPA currently is 3.65 with a 3.8 in her majors.
 
As to her post university plans, she'd like to stay in Portland if a good internship opportunity were to arise. She's looking for internships and into graduate school but said she's keeping her options open for now.
 
One thing she's definitely decided…she's decided she's less passionate about the law than she thought and isn't planning on going back to law school.
 
"It's been a good ride. I've had fun. There obviously are trade-offs if you are a student-athlete. You have less of a social life and while your friends go out and do other stuff, you often have to stay at home and study or do film or something else. But, it's worth the tradeoff. It really has been great to be here and to play with my teammates," Jurhar said.