LA MIRADA, Calif. --- After playing one of its best overall matches of the season on Tuesday, Biola was not able to replicate the effort on Thursday, falling 19-25, 25-19, 25-21, 25-22 to No. 5 Texas-Brownsville in an NAIA Top 5 showdown at Chase Gymnasium.

The loss drops the Eagles to 22-6 on the season while the Scorpions improve to 27-1 overall.

Biola simply could not get much going on the evening, hitting a paltry .099 though holding Texas-Brownsville to a bit better .115. And while all four set were close, the Eagles weren't able to string points together when needed to challenge the Scorpions.

"Every team has a bit of a letdown match over the course of the season where everyone struggles and nothing seems to go right. Ours just happened to be tonight," said Head Coach Aaron Seltzer. "That's not to take anything away from Texas-Brownsville, which is a good team and played well tonight. We just wish we could have given them a better match, one that we know we are capable of having."

The Eagles got off to a slow start in the first set, falling behind 9-4 early before rallying back and eventually tying the game at 13-13. Trailing by one at 16-15, Biola strung together a four-point run to go up 19-16. After the Scorpions tied the score again at 19, the Eagles went off, taking back the lead with a kill by Christine Douglas and scoring five-straight to take the set. All of those final five points came on UTB attack errors with three coming on blocks by Rachel Buckley and Nicolette Mather.

Biola once again fell behind in the second set as the Scorpions jumped out to a 10-3 lead and never looked back. The Eagles would close the gap to four on a few occasions, the last coming at 14-10, but were never able to get any closer. Texas-Brownsville would force sideouts on 68% of its opportunities with the Eagles scoring consecutive points just two times the rest of the way.

The third set began with a see-saw battle between the two teams, but the Scorpions broke a 9-9 deadlock with a four-point run to put some distance between the two. Biola responded with a 4-1 run to narrow the gap to one at 14-13 only to see UTB use a five-point run to break the set open and go up 19-13. The Eagles tried to claw their way back into the set late, pulling within three at 23-20 on a kill by Russell, but it would be too little too late.

The story was nearly the same in the fourth set as Texas-Brownsville used a six-point run to break a 9-9 tie and go on top 15-9. Still trailing 18-12, Biola rallied, using a 7-2 run to pull within a single point at 20-19. But a kill by Rafaella Dornelas gave Texas-Brownsville the ball back and started a quick three-point run that made it 23-19 in the visitor's favor. The Eagles made one final push and got to within two at 24-22 before a kill by Talita Milasauskas ended the match.

Danica Markovic led the Scorpions with 18 kills and added 14 digs, four aces and two blocks. Ana Guerra contributed 11 kills and six blocks to the winning effort.

Biola was led by Douglas, who had nine kills and four digs. Russell added eight kills, seven digs and one block. 

The match was the second of three against NAIA Top 10 teams this week. The Eagles dispatched of No. 8-ranked and arch-rival Azusa Pacific University on Tuesday and close out the tough week on Saturday, traveling to play No. 9 California Baptist University in a GSAC match at 7:00 p.m.