Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 GRIMES, Iowa --- It's a road trip this team has been looking forward to since Dec. 6 of last year, but it was not necessarily this first day that No. 4 Biola Volleyball had circled on the calendar as tomorrow they face the Park (Mo.) team that knocked the Eagles out in the national semifinals one year ago.
 
Sometimes the presence of a highly anticipated match looming can cause a team to overlook its present opponents, but that definitely did not happen this Friday as Biola earned two big wins over top-25 opponents on day one of the Grand View tournament.
 
This first day of competition had its hurdles as the Eagles had to go toe-to-toe with a No. 3 Missouri Baptist squad that has the talent to compete for a national title this year and a No. 25 Grand View team that is always competitive and was the host school for this tournament.

Biola ended up winning each of its matches in four sets after two very competitive battles. The two victories improve the Eagles' overall record to 19-1 this season and will go a long way towards helping the team climb back up the national polls.
 
Biola had an early-afternoon start against the Spartans of Missouri Baptist and looked absolutely locked in from the start in the 3-1 (25-19, 25-22, 22-25, 28-26) victory.
 
"This was the best match we have played all year, and it was against a team that was legit," said Head Coach Aaron Seltzer. "We defended well and blocked very intelligently. Our freshmen played so good and our setting improved."
 
Biola got big for this critical mid-season match and out blocked the Spartans 14-8 through the course of the match. Alyssa Mason was an absolute beast by getting in on nine of those 14 blocks. That's not even mentioning her attacking, which we'll talk about in a bit.
 
Britta Blaser and Karly Dantuma, Christina DenBoer and Lauren Hoenecke each added at least three blocks a piece in the team defensive effort on the front row.  That ability to get up for the blocks drove the Missouri Baptist team hitting percentage down to .170 despite having three players reach double-digit kills in just four sets.
 
Mallory Dillon led all attackers with 20 kills, but her huge number came on a hitting percentage in the low-.200s as she swung nearly 50 times on the afternoon.
 
Mason led the way for the Eagles with 16 kills on just 26 attacks and again went without a singe attack error. She hit .615 for the match and raised her season attack percentage to a team-best .442.

"Every day Alyssa gets healthier and more explosive and we are now seeing the fruits of that. It's been really, really helpful for us," said Seltzer.
 
Dantuma and DenBoer wreaked havoc on the outside with a combined 19 kills. The two freshmen hit around .300 combined and were critical in Biola's come-from-behind victory in the close fourth set.
 
Biola was down throughout the set until three consecutive attack errors by the Spartans allowed the Eagles to get the first set point of the match at 24-23. The Eagles then successfully defended two Missouri Baptist set points before rattling off the final three points of the set to clinch the match and avoid a fifth set.
 
Also crucial in the Eagles' clinching the four-set victory was its trio of back row specialists in Crissy Cunningham, Tess Van Grouw and Alex Brehaut. That bunch totaled 26 digs and kept pace with a powerful Spartans offense throughout the afternoon.
 
Following the big win over an opponent ranked one spot higher in the national polls, the Eagles turned around and had to face an opponent 21 spots lower in Grand View. Biola got the 3-1 (21-25, 25-15, 25-21, 25-23) win, but it did not come without its own challenges.

"Grand View is a team that is way better than No. 25," said Seltzer. "They were pesky. They blocked well and serviced well and also had some good attackers. I think they'd slot in between 10-15."
 
The match began rocky for Seltzer's squad as the team dropped the first set 21-25 in a set where they were staring up at the Vikings through most of.
 
Then the second set helped Biola snap back into focus and began to have it looking like a top-5 team yet again with a decisive 25-15 victory. Biola got out to commanding leads in both the third and fourth sets before the Vikings were able to close to an uncomfortable margin, but the Eagles still were able to close both out for the win. The Biola defense held Grand View to a .091 attacking percentage in the decisive fourth set in order to hold on to the two-point differential.
 
Mason led all players with her 15 kills on a .520 clip and Van Grouw had three service aces and 11 digs to highlight the individual efforts.
 
Joclyn Kirton also had a strong performance with 13 kills on a .360 clip as she continues to lead the team with her 225 kills this season. DenBoer rounded out a trip of Eagles with double-digit kills by adding 10 of her own in the nightcap.

"Christina played so well offensively. She was so confident and just swung so, so well," said Seltzer.
 
Becca Branch and Ashton Arbuthnot both had strong days setting up the Eagles' attack. They helped the team hit above .230 as a team in both matches and recorded a combined 96 assists.
 
With the two victories Biola improves to 19-1 overall and moves on to face No. 14 Park (18-5) tomorrow morning at 9:30 a.m. Pacific time. The game will not feature a live stream or live stats. Follow @BiolaAthletics on Twitter for in-game updates as we get them.