JAMESTOWN BOX SCORE
NORTHWEST BOX SCORE

IRVINE, Calif. --- Biola opened up the Concordia University Labor Day Festival on Friday afternoon by sweeping Jamestown University (N.D.) 26-24, 25-19, 26-24 and Northwest University (Wash.) 25-14, 25-8, 25-19 to improve to 7-2 on the season.

Jamestown falls to 3-3 on the season while Northwest  dropped to 2-6.

Despite a pair of close sets, the Eagles set the day's tone with the sweep of Jamestown in the opener.

Freshman outside hitter Nicolette Mather's 15 kills were a game high, flanked by middle blockers Kelsey Christoferson's 11 and Tavea Hampton's 10.

Biola got off to a rocky start, falling behind by three points on two separate occasions in the first game, the last one coming at 15-12. After a timeout, the Eagles went on a 7-1 run to take a 19-16 lead. Jamestown rallied back to tie the score at 23-23 and again at 24-24. Biola ended the back-and-forth battle as Mather and Christoferson combined for a block followed by a kill by Mather to give Biola the 1-0 advantage.

After a 9-9 start in game two, the Eagles blew the game open with a 7-2 run on strong serving by Joy Talcott and Christian Woodruff. Biola used another late run to go up by a comfortable margin and cruise to a six-point win. The Eagles posted a .312 attack percentage in the second game--its best of the afternoon--while holding the Jimmies to a just .107.

The final set was similar to the first in its back and forth nature. Neither team led by more than three points until Biola was able to gain a late advantage. With the score knotted at 22-22, Biola recorded kills by Mather and Meghan Cunningham to go up 24-22. But Jamestown responded with two straight points on kills by Ali Edwards and Katie Zent before an attack error gave Biola another chance to end it. Schoneveld then setup Amy Mosebar to polish off the sweep.

Mather hit an impressive .458 in the match, recording 15 kills in 24 attacks while committing just four errors. She also added two of the Eagles' five blocks.

Jamestown managed to stay in the contest thanks to 9.5 blocks including five by Katie Fediuk. Ali Edwards led the team with 12 kills and added two blocks and eight digs.

The Eagles went back at it a few hours later against Northwest University, continuing their winning ways.

Biola came out on fire in the first set, hitting .483. The Eagles held a five point lead early on, but after a quick run by Northwest, found their lead cut down to two points. Lindsay Dietzen, Talcott, Janae O'Connor, Schoneveld, and Mosebar all served in a 15-6 run to run away with the victory. During the stretch, Mather recorded six of her ten kills to close out the game.

In game two, Northwest struggled to find a rhythm and fell behind as a result. The opponents committed 12 attack errors and the Eagles were able to translate that into a 12-2 lead early on. Northwest drew within six as late as 13-7, but Biola pulled away as Dietzen and Talcott sealed the 17 point victory.

The Eagles wrapped up the sweep with a much closer final set. The most competitive game of the match saw six lead changes and eight ties early on before Biola closed out the match on a 8-4 run.  Hampton recorded six of her eight kills in the deciding game while Kim Russell added four of her seven in the Eagles second victory of the day.

Biola wraps up the Concordia University Labor Day Festival with a pair of games on Saturday. At 3 p.m., the Eagles take on Indiana Tech before concluding the four game stretch against Carrol (Mont.) at 9 p.m.