BOX SCORE

RIVERSIDE, Calif. --- Biola closed out the regular season with a gutsy performance, holding on to beat No. 7 California Baptist 25-22, 25-20, 10-25, 22-25, 15-13 in a GSAC match on Saturday night at Van Dyne Gymnasium in Riverside.

The Eagles head to the postseason with an impressive 27-3 record and finish second in the GSAC with a record of 17-3. The win marks the first time Biola has swept the season season from Cal Baptist since the 2003 season.

The Lancers drop to 24-8 on the season and close out the conference season in fourth place at 13-7.

Senior Meghan Warkentin had 18 kills and four blocks to lead the way for Biola while fellow senior Jessica Buffum recorded 13 kills and 15 digs.

Biola picked up a pair of wins in the first two sets despite not hitting that well. The Eagles slowly pulled away in the first set thanks to an 11-4 run and held off a late charge to win 25-22. In the second set, Biola broke a 9-9 tie with an 8-0 run and cruised to an easy 25-20 win.

But the Lancers fought back in the third set, not wanting to get swept in their final home match of the season. Leading 9-7 near the midway point of the set, Cal Baptist scored the next seven-straight points and finished on a 16-3 run.

That momentum carried over into the fourth set where the Lancers opened with a 6-1 run and never looked back. The Eagles were able to pull within two at 20-18 thanks to strong serving by freshman Christian Woodruff, but the two teams would exchange points the rest of the way with the Lancers tying the match at 2-2 thanks to a 25-22 win.

Biola, which was playing its second-straight five-set match and fifth of the season, took an early 5-3 lead on back-to-back kills by senior Kelsey Mitchell and junior Kelsey Christoferson. But the Lancers came right back and tiedl the score at five on a kill by Colleen Sweeney and an ace by Fei Shi.

The teams remained tied at 7-7 when two Biola errors and a CBU kill put the home team up 10-7. Biola still trailed 11-9 before senior Kristen Peterson picked up a kill , then a block by Warkentin and sophomore Tavea Hampton pulled the Eagles back to within one at 11-10. After exchanging points, Biola managed to tie the score at 12-12 on an attack error by the Lancers, but gave the ball right back on a service error. But that would be the final point for Cal Baptist as Warkentin and Buffum recorded kills to give the Eagles match point, then Warkentin slammed down the winner to salvage the match.

Christoferson finished with eight kills and six blocks for Biola while Peterson added seven kills and three blcoks.

Junior libero Katie Stevens contributed 25 digs for the Eagles to give her 1,462 for her career, just three off the school record of 1,465 held by Hannah Timboe and Heather Diliberto.

The Lancers received 19 kills from Fei Shi, who addied 12 digs, five blocks and two aces. Noelle Dyke had 13 kills and eight digs.

Biola will now prepare for the 2008 NAIA National Championships Dec. 2-6 in Sioux City, Iowa. The Eagles enter the tournament as the No. 2 seed, the highest they have been ranked to end the regular season. Biola has twice finished as the NAIA National Runner-up.