Box Score LA MIRADA, Calif. --- If you blinked you could've missed it. Well, maybe not, but the time sure flew by inside of Chase Gymnasium on Friday night as the No. 1 Eagles took down Arizona Christian in three sets (25-14, 25-15, 25-14) in exactly an hour to win their 2015 Golden State Athletic Conference opener.
"I love the start of conference play," said Head Coach
Aaron Seltzer. "It's fun and exciting, and the girls are pumped up about it. They played with good energy. It was a lot of fun."
Biola had its way in the match from start-to-finish and had a chance to show off the tremendous depth of the roster, getting great performances from the freshmen and others.
The Eagles used long stretches of good serving to setup runs that helped them run away with the sets tonight. Biola ended the match with nine service aces, which ties the previous season-high that came in a four-set match.
Alex Brehaut and
Crissy Cunningham combined for five of the Eagles' nine aces. Brehaut posted her three aces without committing a single service error.
The Eagles' attack was led by a trio of talented freshmen.
Karly Dantuma led all Biola players with seven kills on 11 attack attempts.
Christina DenBoer added six on 12 attempts and
Stephanie Jewett had a great night with four kills on seven attacks, and she even got in on a block.
"It was good to see our freshmen play well," said Seltzer. "They didn't look nervous. They were excited. It was a great start and a good way to pick up kind of the middle of our season."
Joining the freshmen were Biola's middle blockers
Lauren Hoenecke and
Ally Forsberg. The middle have been fantastic over the past few matches as Biola has swept five straight opponents, and tonight was no different. The duo posted a combined 11 kills, with Forsberg hitting .556 with no errors.
Alex Brehaut played in the libero spot and led all players with seven digs, with
Tess Van Grouw and
Tori Moons coming in behind her at six. Both Brehaut and Van Grouw had a moment where they made an impression on the crowd with signature sprawling digs to save points and setup kills.
All-in-all it was just another solid team win for the Eagles, but it means just a bit more as it gets the 2015 GSAC schedule underway and headed in the right direction.
The win helps Biola improve to a 9-0 (1-0 GSAC) mark, while the loss drops the Firestorm to 2-6 (0-1 GSAC). The Eagles are back in action inside of Chase Gym on Saturday night at 7:00 p.m. when they host Hope International.
