Box Score  SANTA BARBARA, Calif --- With the regular season coming to a close and the Golden State Athletic Conference title still up for grabs, No. 18 Biola fell flat, losing 3-1 on the road against a streaking No. 11 Westmont team. The loss eliminates any hope of a Biola regular season GSAC championship and, with losses in three of the last four matches, leaves the Eagles looking for answers moving into the final game of the regular season and the postseason.
 
Biola retains a chance at second place, but it would necessitate a Biola win and No. 10 Vanguard to lose one and at best tie in the other of its two remaining games. Biola would also need a win on their end and a loss by No. 13 The Master's College for the Eagles to finish the two spot jump to second place. On the other end, a Biola loss and a No. 8 Concordia win would push the Irvine Eagles past Biola on tiebreakers and send Biola on the road for all of the postseason with a fifth-place finish. With each team in the top-five only left with teams in the bottom-four, the most likely scenario is each team stays still in the standings, giving Westmont the GSAC title and leaving Biola at fourth, still netting a home playoff game.
 
Back to today's game. Just a minute into this one, Westmont, who won their previous four coming in, was awarded a penalty kick that Tiffany Dimaculangan buried to foreshadow a brutal day for the Biola defense. A second goal about halfway through the period by Sofia Smati, combined with Westmont's superior defending, had Westmont and Biola fans both thinking there may be some shuffling in the conference standings.
 
However, Eagles' Head Coach Todd Elkins had rallied his team before, and Samantha Verduzco's third goal of the season, a 20-yard strike off a rare Warriors' turnover, left the door open for Biola to salvage something in the second half. Instead, Westmont piled on seven shots and another goal, while repeatedly turning away an increasingly desperate Biola attack.
 
In this game, the Eagles saw both ends struggle as the offense could not consistently create scoring chances. With nine shots total, Biola only mustered one shot on goal. The defense failed to contain a capitalizing Westmont offense either, allowing 18 shots with 10 of them on goal as Westmont beat Biola's defense on runs and continued to exploit a sideline-to-sideline, switching approach that flummoxed Biola in its last game, and overtime win against San Diego Christian. Senior Briana Williams saved seven shots, her new season-high after setting her previous high in the last game with six, but it still was not enough.
 
The Eagles recent woes are tough to isolate as all season the team has relied on its defense to create offense, and a solid offense to keep pressure off its defense, so it is not surprising to see both flop, goal differential of 12-3 in four losses this season, when Biola struggles. 
 
Biola heads to Rocklin, California next Saturday for the final game of the regular season against William Jessup. They enter the game with a 12-4 (6-3 GSAC) record, while the Warriors end today with a 6-10 (1-7 GSAC) record.