BOX SCORE

FRESNO, Calif. --- Biola saw its five-match winning streak come to an end on Saturday as the Eagles lost to Southern Oregon University 25-23, 18-25, 25-22, 25-17 in their final match of the Fresno Pacific Sunbird Invitational.

Biola, ranked No. 20 in the NAIA Preseason Poll, drops to 5-2 on the season. The Raiders, who were the top team receiving votes in the Top 25 poll, improves to 5-1with their only loss coming to No. 1 Fresno Pacific.

The Eagles were never really able to get much offense going as Southern Oregon's defense was smothering. The Raiders recorded 16 total blocks in the match including 12 by Megan Bartling, who had two solo blocks and 10 assisted blocks.

Southern Oregon took the early lead in the match by winning a tight first set 25-23. The Eagles broke a 9-9 tie with a 5-1 run and continued to lead a bit later in the set at 19-15. But the Raiders responded quickly with a 6-0 run of their own to go up 21-19. Biola tied it up with two straight kills. After the teams exchanged points, Southern Oregon got a kill from Leah Bergstrom and a big block by Bartling and Leanne Stennett to set up set point. The Eagles fought off the first point thanks to a block by Meghan Cunningham and Tavea Hampton, but Stennett ended it on the next serve with a kill to give the Raiders the game.

Biola came out fired up in the next set, jumping out to a 16-5 lead. Southern Oregon would close the gap a bit near the end, but the Eagles would cruise to the 25-18 win to knot the match at a set apiece.

The two teams again engaged in a back-and-forth battle in a third set which saw 14 ties and six lead changes. The last tie came at 16-16 before the Raiders used a 6-1 run to go up 21-17. Biola closed the gap to one at 23-22 on a block by Cunningham and Hampton and a kill by Amy Mosebar. However, Southern Oregon would score the next two points to win the set 25-22.

The fourth set started out close, but the Eagles simply ran out of gas near the end. Leading 11-10, Southern Oregon used a long 12-4 run to take control of the game and would cruise to 25-17 victory to win the match 3-1.

With the plethora of Raider blocks ,the Eagles managed to record just a .154 attack percentage, their lowest this season.

Kelsey Christoferson led Biola with 12 kills and had a .550 attack percentage, committing just one error in 20 attacks. She also added three blocks. Cunningham, who is saw her first action of the year at this weekend's invitational, had 11 kills and five blocks.

Sophomore Joy Talcott added 10 kills and 14 digs for the Eagles.

Biola wraps up the pre-conference portion of its schedule on Friday and Saturday (Sept. 4-5) at the Concordia University Labor Day Festival in Irvine.