LA MIRADA, Calif. --- Sophomore Christine Douglas recorded a match-high 26 kills to lead No. 3 Biola University to a thrilling 25-15, 24-26, 25-18, 25-19, 15-4 victory over No. 8 Taylor University (Ind.) in a battle of two of the NAIA's best on Thursday night at Chase Gymnasium.

The Eagles improve to 19-4 on the season and pick up their 10th-straight victory. The Trojans fall to 23-3.

Douglas was one of two players in double figures for the Eagles, but shoulder much of the load, recording 26 kills for the third time this season. She added three blocks and six digs. Senior middle blocker Tavea Hampton added 10 kills and seven blocks, giving her 17 in Biola's last two matches. 

Senior setter Abbie Wright had a solid performance, recording 29 assists, 16 digs, two kills and three aces. Her three aces, including one on match-point, give her 170 in her career, the most by any player in program history.

The match was a back-and-forth affair which felt like an NAIA Tournament match throughout. The Eagles completely dominated in the first, third and pivotal fifth set, while the Trojans controlled the second and fourth sets without much of a problem.

In the first, Biola came out firing, committing just one hitting error (an attack which rolled across the top of the net and fell back on the Eagles' side), posting a .536 attack percentage. Biola slowly started to pull away early one, breaking an 8-8 tie with a 5-1 run  to make it 13-9. The teams exchanged points through much of the rest of the set with the Eagles still lead by four at 19-15 following their lone attack error. Biola would end the suspense with a quick six-point run to end the set on strong serving by senior Abbie Wright.

After just one attack error in the first, the Eagles committed four in the six points of the second set with three coming via Taylor blocks. The Trojans continued to take advantage of Biola hitting errors, jumping out to a quick 9-4 lead. They would stretch the lead to as many as five on a few occasions, the last coming at 20-15.

The Eagles would close the gap with four-straight points and eventually tie the score at 23-23 on a kill by Douglas. After a service error gave set point to the Trojans, Biola picked up a kill by Wright to tie the score at 24-24. But Ashlyn Dehoogh slammed down a kill to set up another set point for Taylor and a bad set by the Eagles gave the Trojans the set, 26-24. Biola wound up committing 11 attack errors in the second set, more than in the other four sets combined.

The Eagles righted the ship in the third set. Trailing 12-11 nearing the midway point, Biola ratted off a 9-0 run thanks to strong serving by junior Christian Woodruff, and three kills and two blocks by Douglas. Taylor would narrow the gap a bit with a pair of short runs, but the Eagles would hold on for the 25-18 victory. Douglas wound up recording nine of Biola's 14 kills in the third set to lead the charge.

However, the Trojans were not ready to go quietly into the night. Back on what appeared to be the lucky side of the court, Taylor broke open a close set with a long run of its own. Trailing 11-10, the Trojans rattled off a 9-3 run to to up 19-14 and would not let Biola get any closer than three three the rest of the way. Middle blocker Bethany Beck had seven of her 12 kills in the fourth set and added two blocks.

But Taylor just flat ran out of gas in the fifth set as Biola rushed out to a 6-0 lead and never looked back. The Eagles would score 10 of the first 11 points in the match and closed it out with Wright's record-breaking ace to win easily, 15-4.

Biola had nine kills in 16 swings in the fifth and did not allow the Trojans to string consecutive points together.

Overall, the Eagles played solid defense, recording 103 digs in the match--the eighth-highest total since rally scoring began and the most since 2007. Freshman libero Emily Weingartner recording a career-high 31 digs. Woodruff added 16 and freshman setter Gracee Gallarda contributed 11 to go along with 22 assists.

Biola held the Trojans to a .139 attack percentage, marking the 10th-straight match the Eagles have held an opponent under .200. 

Sophomore Rachel Buckley recorded eight kills and no errors in 14 attacks for a .571 attack percentage, her 

Kelsey Pritchard recording 15 kills to pace Taylor and was one of four players with 10 or more. Beck had 12 and added five blocks while Dehoogh and Rachel Kiser each contributed 10.

The match was the first of three for the Trojans against Top 15 teams from Southern California. Taylor plays at Concordia on Friday and wraps up the trip at Azusa Pacific on Saturday.

Biola also takes on Concordia, ranked No. 10 in the latest NAIA National Rankings. The Eagles and Eagles do battle on Saturday (Oct. 16) at 7:30 p.m. The match will be the concluding event in a great day of action as part of the Biola Fall Ball and Tailgate festivities. The day starts with women's soccer hosting Concordia at 2:30 p.m. with the two schools doing battle in men's soccer at 5:00 p.m. Volleyball then wraps up the evening at 7:30 p.m. There will be food, fun, prizes, games and more! Be sure to wear red and join in the excitement beginning at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday.