The No. 1 Biola Eagles women’s volleyball team remains undefeated for the season as they beat both their opponents this last week — The Master’s College Mustangs and San Diego Christian Hawks — in three sets. Their record stays unblemished at 15-0 overall and 7-0 in Golden State Athletic Conference matches.

WORKING HARD

“One thing that we have been really trying to improve on is the way we start games,” said senior outside hitter Joclyn Kirton. “We have been working really hard in practice so that when it comes to game time we can start strong right away.”

The Eagles struggled in the first set against Master’s, as it ended up going to extra points, with Biola eventually getting the best of the Mustangs 26-24. In all three sets, the Mustangs jumped out to an early lead, but Biola always went on mid-to-late game runs to grab the lead back. The largest run the Eagles made came in the third set, when they were down 13-15, then went on a ten point run to give them a commanding 23-15 lead.

Senior middle blocker Lauren Hoenecke led the offense for Biola, leading all hitters with 12 kills, trailed by Kirton and senior middle blocker Alyssa Mason. Hoenecke also got four blocks, as did senior outside hitter Britta Blaser, and freshman outside hitter Christian DenBoer contributed three solo blocks. Another Biola standout was senior setter Ashton Arbuthnot, who helped the team out by getting two serving aces.

EERILY FAMILIAR

The Eagles then headed to El Cajon to face the SDCC Hawks three days later on Tuesday, Sept. 29. The first set looked eerily familiar to the ones against Master’s, as the Hawks jumped out to an early lead, then Biola got a pair of four-plus point runs that helped give them the 25-18 first set win.

The second set was better for the Eagles, as they grabbed the first point, then never gave up the lead for the rest of the set. The Hawks fought back, eventually bringing it to a 13-13 tie, but was unable to complete the comeback as Biola got the 25-19 win. The third set went back-and-forth for a while, until the score said 15-14 in Biola’s favor, at which point they went on a 10-2 run to close out the set and match with a 25-16 win.

Mason and Kirton led the Eagles’ offense, getting 11 and 10 kills, respectively. The entire Eagles offense massively outscored San Diego’s, as Biola ended up with 44 kills as opposed to only 28 for SDCC. Other significant players sophomore Tess Van Grouw contributed three aces while Hoenecke and Mason got three blocks each.

A TOUGH MATCH

Biola’s next match is against the Vanguard University Lions, the only other team in GSAC play undefeated in conference matches. The Eagles expect a tough match, but certainly consider themselves up for the challenge.

“We train hard so that we will be prepared for when we face tough opponents,” Mason said. “Our goal is to win the match in 3 games.”

The match starts at 7 p.m. in Costa Mesa, which is the second of a seven-game road trip for the Eagles.