The Biola Eagles volleyball team traveled to Iowa this past weekend for one of the most significant tournaments of the year. They faced three very formidable ranked opponents, the No. 3 Missouri Baptist University Spartans, the No. 25 Grand View College Vikings and the No. 14 Park University Pirates, last year’s NAIA champion. The Eagles were able to defeat Missouri Baptist and Grand View in four sets each, but lost to Park in five.

WITHOUT AN ERROR

After that tournament concluded, the Eagles returned home to face the Life Pacific College Warriors, who they beat in straight sets. All of these games were outside of Golden State Athletic Conference play, affecting Biola’s overall record, now 20-2.

Missouri Baptist was the first team Biola lined up against in the tournament, and the Eagles played well, defeating the Spartans in four sets (25-19, 25-22, 22-25, 28-26). The story of the match against MBU was attacking errors, as the Spartans committed 31 while getting 55 kills, while Biola limited their mistakes to 19 with 51 kills.

Another reason for Biola’s success was senior middle blocker Alyssa Mason. Mason led Biola in kills, getting 16 without committing a single error, and she also led the Eagles in blocks, getting in on nine of the team’s 14 total. Another standout performer for the Eagles was freshman opposite hitter Karly Dantuma, who got 11 kills.

DECISION IN EXTRA POINTS

Biola then faced the Vikings of Grand View College, earning another four set victory (21-25, 25-15, 25-21, 25-23), this time dropping the first set but taking the next three. Biola also gained the advantage on kills, putting away 58 balls compared to Grand View’s 55. Additionally, Biola got seven aces compared to Grand View’s two. Mason led Biola in kills and blocks — 15 and six  — but senior Joclyn Kirton and freshman Christina DenBoer also did their part with 13 and 10 kills.

The Park Pirates looked to defend their championship victory last year, and ended up barely beating Biola in five sets, four of which had to be decided in extra points (29-27,29-27,27-29, 26-24, 15-10). Four Eagles had kill numbers in the double digits, but Kirton led them all with 19 kills and five errors. Biola committed four more errors overall and got five less kills than Park, enough to make the difference in the match.

“[Park is] still the defending national champions, so they played really well,” said Aaron Seltzer, head coach. “But we played really well actually, and it was a good tournament for us.”

COMING BACK

Biola came back and played the Life Pacific Warriors on Wednesday, and was able to walk away with the easy three set victory (25-15, 25-10, 25-16). Biola tallied a kill percentage of .475, their fourth highest on the season. Mason had a great night, getting 12 kills on 15 tries without an attacking error to give her an attacking percentage of .800, the highest on the season.

Biola resumes GSAC play on Oct. 23, when they face the Menlo College Oaks to try and repeat their three set victory earlier in the season. Play will begin in Chase gymnasium at 7 pm.