The Eagles made their appearance in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletic championship tournament beginning Dec. 3, battling their way through the opening round and quarterfinals to defeat Concordia University in the semifinals. Biola was not able to clinch the title championship and fell to Texas-Brownsville University in the championship match.
After defeating Grandview College in the quarterfinals, the Eagles faced off against Concordia for the third time this season. Since two of the three losses during the regular season for Biola were against Concordia, the Eagles were determined to not let them win a third time.
Biola lost to Concordia in the semi-final match last year, so going into this match the Eagles were not going to let history repeat itself.
“All of us were on the same page as far as thinking ‘this is it,’” junior middle blocker Amy Weststeyn said. “We were all confident, and we knew that we couldn’t overthink it.”
The Eagles came out swinging in the first set and quickly overwhelmed Concordia with a 6-0 lead. Biola’s biggest lead of the game was 21-14. Concordia was not able to recover from the sudden lead that Biola had, and the Eagles came out on top 25-17.
In the second set Biola once again started out with a lead, but Concordia was able to recover and stay close in score to Biola at 5-4. The two teams traded off points for a while before Biola had a long run of points and got a steady lead at 19-14. Biola was able to come out with a win at 25-21.
The Eagles went into the third set with the hopes of not only beating Concordia for the first time since 2010, but sweeping their Golden State Athletic Conference rival.
“I think that we knew as long as we had our side of the court running smoothly and we passing, serving and blocking well then we could do it,” Weststeyn said. “There was no fear there, it was just confidence and knowing what we had to do to win.”
Concordia and the Eagles fought point for point in the third set. Biola stayed calm under Concordia’s pressure and defeated them in the 25-23 third and final set.
“It was the game we have wanted for a long time,” Weststeyn said. “It has always been a struggle to beat Concordia because they are such a strong team. It was the highlight of our season to sweep Concordia to get to the finals.”
FIRST TIME IN A WHILE
The Eagles went into their first NAIA Championship match since 1997 against Texas-Brownsville University. Biola had lost to Texas-Brownsville in October and was hoping to have a repeat of the Concordia meet.
“The strategy going into Brownsville was to go in and play like we had nothing to lose — because we didn't,” senior setter Gracee Gallarda said. “They had everything to lose and we had everything to gain so that was our biggest point.”
Biola fell to Texas-Brownsville in three sets. Right out of the gate Texas-Brownsville came out swinging. Biola managed to stay close in score throughout each set, but the Scorpions took all three sets 27-27, 27-25 and 25-22.
“Abbie Wright our assistant coach would tell us ‘you can either play timid and lose, you can play confident and maybe lose or you can be confident and win. So you might as well play confidently.’ So we made that our strategy,” Weststeyn said.
Biola had a very successful season. Out of their 27 wins this season, 19 of them were sweeps.
“What has made this team so successful is its commitment to God, its commitment to coach and its commitment to each other,” Gallarda said. “Along with that, we all understand that to be successful, we were going to have to trust each other and work as hard as we could throughout the year.”
The Eagles finish out their season 27-4 overall and 12-2 in GSAC play.
