BOX SCORE

SANTA CLARITA, Calif. --- Biola failed to get much offense going on Saturday, falling 3-1 at The Master's College in the GSAC Tournament Finals at Bross Field. However, the news was not all bad as the Eagles still managed to earn the sixth and final at-large berth into the NAIA Tournament Field, their first appearance since 1987.

The loss drops Biola to 13-4-2 on the season while The Master's improves to 16-2-2. The Mustangs, ranked No. 7 in the final NAIA Rankings, earn the GSAC's automatic berth to the NAIA National Championship Tournament as the conference tournament champions. The Eagles, who finished as the No. 12 team in the final NAIA Rankings, had to play the waiting game and learned late Saturday night that they had done just enough to get in as the final at-large team in the 31-team tournament.

Hosted by 15 different schools, the National Championship Opening Round takes place on Saturday, Nov. 21. The winners of the National Championship Opening Round games, as well as host school Fresno Pacific (Calif.), will advance to the National Championship final site from Nov. 30 - Dec. 5 in Fresno, Calif. The official announcement of the National Championship Opening Round pairings will be released at 2 p.m. CST on Sunday.

The loss to The Master's was the second in three weeks with a GSAC title on the line. Biola fell 2-1 to the Mustangs in the final game of the regular season as The Master's clinched the regular-season title and home-field advantage throughout the conference tournament. This time, the Eagles could not muster much offense and fell 3-1 to the Mustangs, who claimed the tournament title as well.

The Master's got on the board early, scoring in the 15th minute on a blast by Jacob Marchesani. Things went from bad to worse six minutes later as Biola defender Jared Fenlason received a straight red card for retaliating after a late tackle, leaving the Eagles down a man for the final 70 minutes of the match.

Biola had trouble adjusting as The Master's dominated play the rest of the half.

In the second half, the Mustangs struck again, just 30 seconds into the period. Joel Peluffo rocketed a quick shot past the outstretched keeper on a quick attack down the right side.

With a 2-0 lead, The Master's continued to keep up the pressure and netted a third goal in the 64th minute on what can gently be described as a highly questionable call. With the Mustangs pressuring the Biola goal, a shot by a TMC player was blocked by a BU defender. Biola goalkeeper Aaron Fenlason stepped up to collect the ball, but was whistled for handling the ball on a pass from his own player. This gave the Mustangs an indirect kick inside the box. Before Biola could get setup, the Mustangs' Brian Gardner set the ball down and passed it to Marlon Lindo who shot it into the empty net. Much to everyone's surprise--including most of The Master's players--the referee whistled the goal good and pointed to the center circle.

Biola scored its lone goal of the match in the 71st minute via a penalty kick after a Mustang's player was whistled for a handball in the box. Sophomore Marco Ruvalcaba stepped up and converted the spot kick to pull the Eagles within two at 3-1. It turned out to be the lone goal allowed by the Mustangs over the course of the conference tournament.

Biola had a couple of great chances to score another goal in the final 30 minutes. The Eagles had a pair of free kicks just outside of the box, the first of which sailed high and the second stopped on a great diving effort by The Master's goalkeeper Kevin Lawson. With around 15 minutes to go, Biola had a flurry of three great shots at the Mustangs' goal within a 15-second span. The first and third were saved in spectacular fashion by Lawson while the second was headed away by a defender.

Lawson finished the game with five saves while Fenlason recorded six.

Despite the loss, Biola will be making its first trip to the NAIA National Tournament since 1987 and its third trip overall. The Eagles only other NAIA appearance came back in 1981. Biola is 0-2-2 all-time at the tournament, which used to feature a pool play format.

For more information on the NAIA Men's Soccer Tournament, visit http://naia.cstv.com/sports/m-soccer/2009championship.html.