The list of things on the table for volleyball’s match against The Master’s University Mustangs: senior night, a berth into the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics playoffs and head coach Aaron Seltzer’s 399th career win. All of those goals came to fruition as Biola swept the Mustangs in an extremely exciting match.
For two seniors, middle Olivia Sorensen and setter Tori Moons, it marked the final home game for their respective careers in Biola volleyball uniforms. Sorensen had a quality night, finishing with four key kills and assisting on six blocks. Moons did a great job of distributing the ball all night, throwing out some fantastic back-sets on her way to a match-high 24 assists.
“It is good for the girls to play well on senior night,” Seltzer said. “Everybody was excited.”
Biola did an excellent job of controlling the tempo of the match, using their blockers effectively. They finished with 11 total blocks, well up from their 6.5 blocks-per-match average.
Master’s took a 3-1 lead in the first set, but Biola responded with a three-point run to take the lead, and they did not give it back for the remainder of the set. A four-point run at the very end of the set brought them to a 25-18 win, giving them plenty of confidence going into set two.
The score of the second set never had a larger gap than two points all the way until it read 18-17 in The Master’s favor. At that point, Biola kicked things into high gear and won eight out of the last nine points to give them the 25-19 victory.
The final set proved by far the closest, as it required extra points to decide the winner. Biola got out to an early 7-1 lead, but the Mustangs fought back and traded point-for-point and run-for-run with the Eagles throughout the remainder. Biola had one match point when they led 24-23, but The Master’s successfully fought it off. However, a kill from sophomore opposite Karly Dantuma and a block from junior middle Ally Forsberg finished the game off at 26-24, ending the match as well.
The left-handed Dantuma led all scorers with 15 kills and a .333 kill percentage, followed by sophomore outside Hannah van Warmerdam, sophomore opposite Stephanie Jewett and sophomore outside Brooke Watts, who each had seven kills.
“I thought we were really well prepared,” Seltzer said. “We spent a lot of time going through things, matching up where we wanted to be and how everything looked on film. I thought it played out exactly the way we wanted to.”
The home regular season may have come to a close, but Biola still has two more conference games before the postseason begins. The Eagles next travel to El Cajon, Calif. on Nov. 3 to face the San Diego Christian College Hawks at 7:30 p.m.
