The Biola Eagles’ volleyball regular season enters its final phase this week. The team has performed extremely well this year, coming into their final match against The Masters College with an overall record of 27-4, a conference record of 14-1 and a very impressive 9-0 away match record.

The Eagles played three matches this week, beating Westmont on Tuesday and Menlo College on Friday in four sets, and only needing three sets and under an hour to get the win over William Jessup on Saturday.

Westmont and Menlo proved equally difficult for the Eagles, as both contained a set that went to extra points and three others that no one team dominated.  The Eagles started out strong in both matches, winning the first set relatively easily. Then, Westmont and Menlo both came back and won the second set in extra points — Westmont needing 27 points to win while Menlo needed 30. Biola bounced back and was able to make both games last only two sets more, winning both matches in four sets.

William Jessup sits at the very bottom of the Golden State Athletic Conference at 1-13, so Biola came in as the strong favorite. However, the scores for all three sets came surprisingly close due in part to how busy the Eagle’s schedule was this past week. The match against Jessup took place less than 24 hours after finishing the tough match against Menlo. Biola eventually did walk away with the win as expected, helped along by 25 attacking errors by William Jessup.

The final match of the season takes place against The Master’s College Mustangs on Saturday Nov. 15, a match which junior outside hitter Alyssa Mason does not take lightly.

“It is their senior night and last game of the season because they have not qualified to go to nationals,” said Mason. “They are going to play hard because they have nothing to lose, so I am expecting a hard fought battle.

The last time these two teams met, Biola was able to get the win in straight sets, with Master’s unable to score more than 19 points in a single set. However, as Mason said, the Mustangs will play on their home court on senior night, which means that they will be looking for the upset. Biola wants to avoid this in their final match, as it would hinder the team's ultimate goals.

“We would like to win conference with a win [against Master’s] and take the GSAC championship,” said Mason. “We would love to compete to the best of our abilities at nationals, and hopefully that will take us to finals again.”

Barring an unexpected loss to Master’s, the Eagles will have won GSAC, barely beating out Concordia. This could give them a boost entering the postseason. They have consistently attended the national tournament over the last few years, and hope to live up to — or go beyond — those expectations. The team knows that nationals require a physical and mental shift that starts in practice.

“We need to change our mentality and the practice atmosphere,” said Mason. “It's ‘go-time’ now and we need to start treating every time we touch the volleyball like it is prep for the national championship.”