Biola volleyball returned to La Mirada, Calif. Monday for the first of four straight games at Chase Gymnasium, facing off against PacWest foe Chaminade University. The Silverswords entered the game undefeated on the season, but the Eagles handed them their first loss with a dominating sweep for their third straight victory in that fashion.
The Eagles fed off the electric atmosphere at Chase Gymnasium in what was only their second home game of the season. Sophomore outside hitter Christina DenBoer recorded two early kills to push Biola to a 14-8 in set one. The service game from the Eagles kept Chaminade out of sync, and senior middle blocker Sierra Bauder continued her recent stellar play, tallying a kill to push the lead to 23-13. She also ended the set on another smash for the 25-14 win.
“Sierra’s been incredible, she’s having such an incredible senior year. She’s really carried us this year offensively, that connection with her and Brinley has been really good, they’ve set the slide really well,” said head coach Aaron Seltzer.
Biola used the momentum from the first set to dominate the second set as well, jumping to a quick 10-5 lead off of a kill from senior opposite hitter Karly Dantuma. A beautiful dump from senior setter Brinley Beresford combined with several Silverswords hitting errors made the score 19-9, and another Dantuma kill closed the set out 25-12.
“We made it a super big priority to be super energetic during warmups and I think we just ended up coming out with more energy. We were confident and they weren’t as energetic,” DenBoer said.
Going for their third straight sweep in conference play, the Eagles kept up the high energy, pulling ahead 15-9 on a Beresford kill. More sloppy play from Chaminade’s hitters widened the gap, and Bauder capped her great night with a match-ending kill for the 25-18 set win.
“We’ve been struggling a little bit with serve receive, but we definitely picked it up this game. [Sophomore libero] Sami [Hover] is an incredible libero, Brinley, [Sophomore setter] Vanessa [Garcia] are incredible setters, we all connect really well with them,” said Bauder.
It took a complete team effort for the Eagles to dominate such a formidable opponent, as Chaminade was ranked No. 4 in the PacWest preseason poll. DenBoer and Bauder led the offense with 10 and nine kills respectively. DenBoer also recorded 4 aces and Bauder picked up six blocks. Beresford tallied 14 assists, while Hover put up an eye-popping 17 digs.
Biola (8-4, 4-1 PacWest) will look to continue their hot play against Hawaii Hilo University on Thursday at home at 7 p.m.
