Eagles lose in NAIA quaterfinal to Lee University

The Biola women’s volleyball team made it to the quarterfinals of the 2011 NAIA Volleyball National Championships on Friday, Dec. 2 where they lost to Lee University in three sets, 26-24, 25-23 and 25-16. The team completed its season with an overall 27-13 record.

The University of Texas at Brownsville wound up winning the national title by beating Concordia University of Irvine, Calif.

The tournament was held at the Tyson Events Center in Sioux City, Iowa where the Eagles beat Fresno Pacific University earlier that day to make it to the quarterfinals for the 10th time in 11 all-time tournament appearances.

Eagles play three close sets, still fall short

In the first set against the Lee Flames, the Eagles went up by five points with a score of 8-3 and would continue to lead most of the match until the Flames began to step it up toward the end. Junior Christine Douglas, NAIA All-American and owner of 1,049 kills, got a kill to make the score 24-22, but the Flames came back to score a point. After that, Lee scored three more points to win the match with a score of 26-24.

“We were struggling to put balls away,” senior Christian Woodruff said. “Lee is a very good team and they were digging everything that we hit their way.”

The final score was close again in the second match. This time in the beginning of the match Lee took a 9-4 lead with a 5-0 run. However, Biola came back with a 6-0 run making the score 12-11. Freshman NAIA All-American Amy Weststeyn got three kills, Woodruff got one, and sophomore Chelsee Arnitz got one to contribute to the lead. From then on the Eagles and the Flames would trade leads before the Flames finally would take an 18-17 lead and turn it into a 25-23 win.

Lee holds commanding lead in third set

In the third and final match of the evening, Biola trailed Lee throughout the match. The Flames led by as many as 10 points three times in the match with scores of 17-7, 23-13 and 24-14. They then went on to take the set with a score of 25-16, taking the match 3-0.

“The loss to Lee was a disappointment, because you always want to go further, but I am so proud of our team and the hard work we put in to get that far,” Weststeyn said.

In the match against Lee University, Weststeyn had a total of 11 kills and three blocks. Following her was Arnitz with 10 kills and three blocks and junior Rachel Buckley with six kills and three blocks.

“I was very proud of my team and everything that we accomplished together this season,” Woodruff said. “We went from not even knowing if we were going to make it to the tournament, to being one of the top five teams in the nation. That in itself is something to be proud of.”