This story was originally published in print on Oct. 18, 2018.
While many students looked forward to a short week of school before Torrey Conference, three Biola teams had something else in store; a trip to Hawaii to take on PacWest rivals Chaminade University, Hawaii Pacific University, and University of Hawaii Hilo. This marked the first time in program history that Biola sent three teams to Hawaii concurrently, and the first time that men’s and women’s soccer has traveled to compete there.
Volleyball plays each team in the PacWest twice, once at home and once away. However, men and women’s soccer only plays each team once, alternating home and away every year. This means the three squads rarely see each other on the road during the season, making the trip to paradise even more special.
A RARE OCCASION
When volleyball took on Chaminade Oct. 9, both soccer teams were in attendance cheering on their fellow Eagles, a rare sight to see all the way in the Aloha state. That camaraderie brought a special type of support that helped Biola feel at home despite the rowdy Chaminade crowd.
“It’s really, really great to see other student athletes supporting programs outside of their own, we have a really great tradition of that being the case with events here at Biola,” said Assistant Athletic Director Neil Morgan. “It was a big night for Chaminade. They had a ‘blue out’ and really tried to pump up the event, and it felt like it was as much a Biola home event as it was a Chaminade home event.”
PLANNING IS PARAMOUNT
There are a lot of logistics involved with such a big trip for three teams at once, and the planning by the Athletics department must be done well in order to ensure a smooth trip throughout. Much of the credit goes to their administrative assistants, in particular Annie Ricafranca, Morgan noted.
“She books all of the travel, she works with purchasing in order to do that for our teams and just making sure that the bus to the airports shows up at the right time and is scheduled to go to the right airport and pick us up from the right airport is an important piece,” Morgan said.
As far as spending goes, the coaches have a great deal of responsibility with regards to making sure they have the right amount of money so that they don’t run out and have to spend from their own.
“Coaches’ credit cards have to make sure they have the right limits so we’re not spending and getting rejected. We always have a traveling administrator go on the out of town trips to make sure if stuff like that does come up we can handle it quickly and effectively,” Morgan said.
A TRIP TO REMEMBER
While the trip was primarily for sports, the teams got to spend some down time enjoying all the activities Hawaii has to offer. Soccer got the chance to visit the famous tourist attraction Rainbow Falls on one of their days off and volleyball even got to spend an extra day after play concluded soaking in the sun.
“Coach Seltzer arranged for an extra day on the trip to travel from one end of the big island all the way over to the other side where he knew of a great white sand beach that the team was able to go out into the water and watch the sun go down and have a really relaxing end to the trip,” Morgan said.
On the sports side of things, the Eagles had a solid trip to the islands as well. Volleyball went 3-0, men’s soccer went 2-1 and women’s soccer finished 1-1-1 on the trip.
As all the teams return to campus to continue conference play, they carry with them many unforgettable memories from the trip. It is now time to remember those amazing times and continue all three teams push for a postseason berth.
