Following a disappointing loss to the Westmont Warriors, the Biola Eagles volleyball team played two matches this past week, demolishing both teams in straight sets.
AN IMPORTANT WIN
The San Diego Christian Hawks fell to the Eagles first. On senior night, Biola got revenge on the Vanguard Lions for taking a loss from them earlier in the season. Biola’s Golden State Athletic Conference record moves to 14-2 with the wins, and their overall record improves to 25-3.
The game against San Diego Christian went fairly smoothly for the Eagles, as they led the Hawks in every offensive category as well as taking the all-important three set win. Two notable areas the Eagles outplayed the Hawks were in the attacking errors and blocking. Biola limited themselves to only 12 hitting errors on the night with 38 kills, while SDCU made 27 attacking mistakes with getting only 30 kills. In terms of blocking, Biola’s front row dominated the match, getting 12 blocks as opposed to the six the Hawks put up.
Freshman opposite Karly Dantuma led Biola in kills on the match, getting eight off 18 attempts. Senior middle blocker Alyssa Mason followed closely behind with seven kills from 21 attempts. Mason and senior outside hitter Britta Blaser each tallied up five blocks, and sophomore middle blocker Ally Forsberg contributed four of her own.
LARGEST ATTENDANCE
The next game was by far the largest attendance home game of the season for the Eagles, as 700 people came out to watch them face Vanguard on senior night. The first time these teams played each other this season, Vanguard got the better of Biola and took the 4-1 match win. The Eagles were looking for revenge at home, and played a nearly flawless game in order to accomplish that goal.
The Eagles were plagued by errors of all sorts the last time these two teams met, but that was not the case this time as they made a total of 18 errors, a number one less than the amount of Vanguard’s attacking errors alone.
In addition to limiting their errors, the Eagles also beat Vanguard in nearly every other offensive category. They got 16 more kills, three more aces and five more blocks than the Lions.
Mason, Blaser and Dantuma all had another fantastic match, tallying 11, 11 and 10 kills, respectively. Senior middle blocker Lauren Hoenecke also did her part, putting away five balls and contributing to five blocks. Mason, who leads the nation in kill percentage, helped her cause by putting up an extremely impressive .600 kill percentage for this match. The total kill percentage for the team was .407, which is their second highest number on the season.
HARNESSING THE ENERGY
Senior night marks the last regular season home match for the eight seniors on the team, and the entire team wanted to make sure it would be a memorable game to go out on.
“I didn’t have to worry at all about whether or not they were excited or had energy, we knew that was going to happen,” said Aaron Seltzer, head coach. “I think it’s whether or not you can harness that energy and focus it there.”
The Eagles have one final match before the postseason begins, and it is against the Life Pacific College Warriors on Nov. 12 at 7 p.m.
