LA MIRADA, Calif. --- Biola had its chances to wrap up its NAIA Top 15 showdown against No. 9 Fresno Pacific in three sets, but ended up suffering a 20-25, 28-26, 28-26, 25-22 loss in a GSAC match on Tuesday night at Chase Gymnasium.

The Eagles, who recently moved up to No. 12 in the latest NAIA National rankings, drop to 17-8 on the season. Biola wraps up the first half of GSAC play with a 5-4 record and sits in a three-way tie for fourth with Vanguard and Point Loma Nazarene. The Sunbirds improve to 11-5 and are tied for second with a 7-2 conference mark.

Junior outside hitter Christine Douglas led the Eagles with 19 kills while senior Sarah McAtee added 10. Martina Gregusova had a match-high 23 kills to pace Fresno Pacific with Jessie Alcorn adding 19.

Biola came out firing in the first set, opeing up a 7-3 lead early on. Frenso cut that lead to one at 7-6 with a quick run and kept the set close the rest of the way. Biola was able to maintain a lead through much of the set and slowly pulled away late with a four-point run highlighted by a pair of kills by McAtee which made it a 21-16 game. Biola would close out the set with a kill by Douglas to go up 1-0 after a 25-20 win.

The rest of the match was much closer with the second set going back and forth with 16 ties and 11 lead changes. Biola used a four-point run to go up 19-17 only to see Fresno Pacific respond with a run of its own to go back up 23-21. The Eagles fought back and used a pair of FPU errors to tie the score at 23. Biola would then set up set point with a big block by McAtee and junior middle blocker Rachel Buckley. 

Fresno fought off the point and set up a set point of its own after a pair of attack errors by the Eagles made it 25-24. McAtee then recorded back-to-back kills to put Biola back up 26-25 with its second chance at the set. But the Sunbirds rallied again and got a kill from Kathleen Anderson and another by Gregusova, then won the set with an ace by Anderson.

The story was the same in the third set, though the score was a lot closer throughout with 19 ties and 13 lead changes this time. Neither team led by more than two through much of the set until Fresno oused a four-point run to turn an 18-17 deficit into a 21-18 lead. Biola rallied back and scored five-straight points to go on top 22-21.

The seesaw battle returned with Fresno earning the first chance at the set after a kill by Alcorn made it 24-23. Biola got a big solo block by freshman middle blocker Amy Weststeyn to fight off that point and earned its first set point after a Fresno Pacific error. Kills by Erica Adachi and Alcorn gave Fresno its second set point at 26-25. Douglas fought off the point with a kill, but then had an attack error to give the Sunbirds another shot which Anderson scored as Fresno took the set 28-26.

Biola fell behind early in the fourth set as Fresno jumped out to a 9-4 lead. The Eagles would rally back and eventually tied the score at 14-14 on back-to-back kills by Douglas. The score would remain close until Fresno again turned an 18-17 deficit around to a 20-18 lead with three-straight kills by Gregusova. With the score tied at 21-21 a few points later, the Sunbirds took the lead back thanks to a pair of Biola errors and ended the match with kills by Anderson and Alcorn.

The Eagles blocked well in the contest, recording 13.5 blocks and also had 82 digs. However, Biola hit just .187 and committed 24 attack errors in the contest. After opeing with a .364 attack percentage in teh first set, Biola cound not hit better than .268 the rest of the way.

Biola looks to get back on track this weekend, playing the first of three-straight road matches on Saturday. The Eagles travel to Costa Mesa to take on Vanguard University in a GSAC match at 7:00 p.m.