Box Score LA MIRADA, Calif. --- In an uncounted, but quite competitive, exhibition against the Trinity Western, Biola women's soccer showed it still has some growing pains to overcome, losing 1-0.
 
The first of those growing pains is the one that cost the most, as a miscommunication between the Biola defense allowed Trinity Western's Natalie Arnett to slash into the box and setup an unmarked Alessandra Oliverio. Oliverio then fired her shot into the opposite side of the net for the lone goal of the contest.
 
With six of Biola's starting 11 either new to the team or taking on a much larger role than before, the Eagles knew some miscommunication and mistimed attempts were inevitable.
 
"Pretty typical first game for us," said Head Coach Todd Elkins. "The girls are excited for the game, but you know it's going to be kind of tough early in the season with a lot of mistakes."
 
Despite giving up the goal, the defense appeared to be much more game-ready than the Eagles' opposite third. The team struggled to connect passes from the midfield to its forwards. Mistimed runs, overshot passes or sloppy gathers were prevalent, especially in the first half, and the team struggled to gain any possession past the midfield line.
 
Even with the offensive struggles Biola can be encouraged with the development in the second half. The newcomers up front showed improvement and maturity after a halftime strategy talk.
 
Biola created a couple of fantastic chances early in the second half, including a Margaret Guadarrama shot, which deflected straight to McKenna Marmelstein who fired it just wide of the goal.
 
Perhaps the clearest sign of the developing chemistry came with just 120 ticks left in the match. Miranda Starbeck launched a beautiful through ball along the left side for Taylor Venegas, who was able to take it all the way into the box. A tying goal looked inevitable, but a sliding save by the Spartans recovering defender put thoughts of that to rest.
 
"The biggest thing I look for at this point is: the returners and the new players, and that dynamic starting to work," said Elkins. "They've been training together now for a bit over a week, so they are starting to blend in a little more now than the first couple of days where they did not know each other at all."
 
The Eagles hope that chemistry continues to develop, and quickly, as they head to Santa Barbara on Thursday to take on Northwest (WA) University in their first countable match of the 2014 season.