LA MIRADA, Calif. --- Senior Sarah McAtee had 11 kills while Christine Douglas and Chelsee Arnitz each added eight to lead Biola to a 25-23, 25-21, 25-19 sweep over The Master's College in the Golden State Athletic Conference opener for both teams on Tuesday night at Chase Gymnasium.

The Eagles, ranked No. 13 in the latest NAIA National Rankings released earlier in the day, improve to 13-4 with the victory and to 1-0 in conference play with the victory while the Mustangs drop to 12-4 and to 0-1 in the GSAC.

McAtee, a senior transfer from San Jose State University, had one of her best matches of the early season, recording 11 kills and a .391 attack percentage (11-2-23) in her first GSAC match. She also added two aces and a block. 

The Eagles had an impressive .304 attack percentage in the match and had eight blocks on the evening and managed to hold off the upset-minded Mustangs. 

The first set was a close one, going back and forth through the first half until the Eagles used a short run to take a 15-11 lead and force the first timeout of the match. Biola maintained its three-point lead through much of the rest of the match, going up 22-19 on a TMC service error.

The Mustangs then started to rally on the next point, getting three-straight kills and a ball-handling error by the Eagles to take a 23-22 lead. After a time out, Biola came alive, tying the game on a solo block by Nicolette Mather, then taking the lead on a kill by McAtee and closing it out on a TMC attack error.

The second set started out going back and forth until a four-point run by the Mustangs gave the visitors a 13-10 lead. Biola battled back with a six-point run of their own to go back on top and stretched the lead out to 20-15. Still leading by five at 23-18, The Master's rallied and cut the lead to two with a quick three-point run. But Douglas ended the rally with a kill and Tara Rallis ended the set with an ace.

The teams and battled back and forth to start out the third set until the Eagles broke a 13-13 tie with an 11-4 run to take a commanding 24-17 lead and cruised to the win.

Biola received four blocks and four kills in seven swings from freshman middle blocker Amy Weststeyn. Arnitz, a sophomore transfer from UC Riverside, had eight kills and three blocks from the right-side while sophomore libero Emily Weingartner recorded 13 digs, two aces and an assist.

The Mustangs received a team-high 10 kills from Samantha Dougherty. 

Biola returns to action on Thursday, hosting No. 21 Vanguard University in a GSAC match at 7:00 p.m. at Chase Gymnasium.