Box Score
La Mirada, Calif.  --- Hosting a women's soccer playoff game for the first time since 2011, RV Biola relished the unexpected return to Al Barbour Field, defeating No. 20 Concordia, 3-0.
 
Jessie Burns set the tone for the match, winning a loose ball and sending it in for her second goal in as many games. Burns' goal would be the only of the half, but it was still a half securely in Biola's favor as they piled up a five shot advantage and did not allow a shot on goal until deep in the second half. In the second half, the Eagles' offense would get two more scores and put the game out of reach. At the 60-minute mark, two-time All-GSAC Amanda Lillicrop connected with first time all-conference honoree Taylor Venegas to add another goal to her stellar season, seven goals total. Then, 10 minutes later, Miranda Starbeck, another first time All-GSAC honoree, played a pretty give-and-go with Brittney Sayre to net Starbeck's fifth goal of the season. The three all-conference honorees for Biola, Lillicrop, Venegas and Starbeck, combined for five points in this one, which is only fitting as they are the top-three point getters for the team.
 
"The girls played fantastic. It was a great team effort. I think the mentality coming into the game was of good belief and good confidence," said Head Coach Todd Elkins. "We have to believe before we win this game, and they went out and kind of proved that to themselves. Going forward, it should be a confidence boost, but I don't think they doubted themselves."
 
Biola's defense definitely played with a confidence it seemed to lack recently, and they earned results that were definitely missing lately. In the 60 minutes prior to Biola's second goal that allowed Biola to play more of a prevent defense, Biola only allowed seven shots from the Concordia, and only three of these 13 shots made it on goal. Biola did an excellent job closing down in the box and not allowing time for Concordia's forwards to get clean kicks off. The shutout is Biola's 10th of the season, but just its second since a 1-0 shutout of Master's on Oct. 8. It is just Biola's fourth win over Concordia since the start of the 2005 season.
 
"Defensively, when we rely on one player or two or even our back four and our keeper to do the job, it's not enough," said Elkins. "When we rely on all eleven players to defend then we can do it, and then we are real tough to beat. That was one of the changes we tried to make today, making sure we are all in as a team and defending as a team."
 
Biola last played Concordia on Oct. 14 at Concordia , and that match saw the Irvine Eagles torch Biola's defense en route to a 4-1 win. This would be the last win of Concordia's season, however, as both teams slumped to the end of the season. For Biola a late loss to William Jessup last week capped off their late season slide from first to what looked like fifth in the standings and a rematch at Concordia for the Golden State Athletic Conference playoffs.  However, Concordia's slump fell even lower as they lost their fifth straight against San Diego Christian to flip the venues and bring both teams to Biola where the BU Eagles have now gone 7-1 this season.
 
"Despite our last road trip where we had a disappointing game on the road, it felt like we got a little bit of grace by still having this home game today, which we thought we wouldn't get," said Elkins. "We were feeling grateful for that and felt this was a great opportunity for us."
 
In other GSAC playoff news, six-seeded San Diego Christian defeated the third seed The Master's College, 2-0. This means Biola will head to Vanguard, the second seed, instead of top-seeded Westmont. The semifinal matches take place Friday afternoon at 2:00 p.m.