Box Score SIOUX CITY, Iowa --- Senior
Christine Douglas had 16 kills and sophomore
Amy Weststeyn added 15 as No. 4 Biola reached the semifinals for the first time in four years with a 25-16, 16-25, 25-23, 25-20 win over No. 5 seed MidAmerica Nazarene University in the quarterfinals of the 2012 NAIA Volleyball National Championships on Friday night.
The Eagles improve to 31-4 with the victory and improve to 5-0 in the tournament overall. The Pioneers suffer their first loss of the tournament and end the season at 29-5.
Biola advances to the NAIA Semifinals on Saturday and will face GSAC-rival and No. 1 ranked Concordia University at 10:00 a.m. CT (8:00 am PT) with a spot in the title game on the line.
Biola looked a bit shaky at times, but found just enough offense to win the final two sets after the teams split the first two.
In the the first set, the teams exchanged points to open the match. With the set tied at 7-7, Biola rattled off five-straight points started by kills from freshman Britta Blaser, junior Gracee Gallarda and junior Chelsea Arnitz. That started a long 14-3 run the Eagles used to break the game wide open and go up 19-9.
MidAmerica would slowly work back into the set with a 7-2 run, taking advantage of four-straight Biola errors to make it a 21-16 game. But after getting a side out on a service error, the Eagles closed out the set with three quick points and won the set 25-16.
The roles were reversed in the second set, though as MidAmerica Nazarene opened the second set with a 10-3 run that gave the Pioneers and early 11-6 lead. Biola closed to within three at 12-9 but MidAmerica Nazarene answered back with four-straight points and another 6-1 run a bit later to make it a 23-13 score. A few points later, MNU tied up the match with a 25-16 win.
Biola all but handed the Pioneers the second set on a platter, committing eight attack errors, five service errors and two ball-handling errors to account for 15 of MNU's 25 points in the set.
However, the Eagles came right back out strong in the third, leading from start to finish to go up 2-1. Biola opened with a quick 5-0 run to take an early lead. MidAmerica Nazarene worked back into the match slowly and used a 4-1 run to pull within two at 15-13.
A few points later, the Pioneers found their way to within one point at 18-17 on a kill by Linjun Ji. But Biola answered right back as Blaser came up with a big kill followed by a set error by MNU and Biola was right back on top 20-17.
After a timeout, the Pioneers got a big kill to pull back to within two but freshman Crissy Cunningham got lucky with a back-row attack which hit the top of the tape and fell over on the MNU side of the court to make it 21-18. Weststeyn slammed down an overpass to make it a 22-18 game and Biola held off a late rally to win 25-23 with Weststeyn picking up another kill to end it.
The fourth set resembled the first for Biola as the Eagles broke open a 6-6 tie with a long 11-3 run to take a commanding 17-9 lead. After the teams exchanged points, the Pioneers worked the score closer with a four-point run to make it 20-16. But Arnitz recorded a kill on slide to end the run and the teams exchanged points the rest of the way as Biola held on to win 25-20.
Douglas had her best match of the season, hitting a season-best .519 with 16 kills and just two errors in 27 swings. She added four blocks including two solo. Weststeyn also hit well, posting a .406 attack percentage with 15 kills in 32 swings with two errors. She had six blocks including one solo.
Arnitz added nine kills for the Eagles with Mather contributing eight more. Blaser, a freshman filling in on the outside for injured freshman Joclyn Kirton, had six kills and four digs.
Charley Parker had a fantastic night on defense, recording 19 digs for Biola. Libero Tara Rallis added 15.
Gallarda recorded 52 assists in the match--three off her season-high in a four-set match. Early in the second set, she went over 2,500 for her career. Gallarda also had 11 digs for her seventh double-double and second of the tournament and also had two kills and two blocks.
Linjun Ji and Megan Hayes each had 11 kills to lead MidAmerica Nazarene. The Pioneers were held to a .175 attack percentage in the match and had just 45 kills overall. The Eagles posted a .248 attack percentage and recorded 57 kills and nine blocks.
The Eagles had to overcome a lot of errors including a season-high 12 service errors with five coming in the second set alone.
Biola advances to the NAIA semifinals for the seventh time in 12 NAIA Tournament appearances and the first since the 2008 season. The Eagles are 2-4 in their previous seven semifinal matches with the last win coming in 1997. Biola's last semifinal appearance came in the 2008 tournament against Concordia. Concordia came away with a sweep to end Biola's run.
A free HD broadcast of the match will be provided through the Biola University Athletic Department with Biola Alumni Josh Banker providing the play-by-play. Visit http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/biola.portal to view the broadcast. Live stats are also available by visiting the NAIA/Dakstats Tournament stats page at http://www.dakstats.com/WebSync/Pages/Tournament/TournamentPage.aspx?association=10&sg=WVB&tour=977.
