Box Score ATHERTON, Calif. --- It was a somewhat steamy afternoon in Atherton as the Eagles took on the Oaks in their fourth Golden State Athletic Conference match of the season on Saturday. The weather was not the only thing that was hot, as the No. 1 Eagles were ultra-efficient as they made quick work of Menlo in three sets (25-16, 25-21, 25-16).
 
"It was a good effort to end our first road trip," said Head Coach Aaron Seltzer.
 
Joclyn Kirton had an insane attacking performance on Saturday afternoon in leading the team with 18 kills on 25 attempts to post a .680 hitting percentage. She and the outside hitters were Biola's go-to source of attack against Menlo all day long.
 
"Joclyn played very well today," said Seltzer. "Ally Forsberg also played very well today and did a great job of getting herself in the right place at the right time throughout the match."
 
Biola won the first point in serve-receive and then did not look back for the rest of their first set as they used their imposing physical presence to dominate the much smaller Oaks squad en route to the first set victory.
 
The outside hitters combined for 12 of the Eagles' 15 first set kills, with Kirton leading the way with a massive six in the set. Only one attacking error came from the outside as the team combined to hit .417 in the first frame off some sweet sets from Ashton Arbuthnot and Tori Moons.
 
Also, the Eagles did well early on in service, posting four aces in the first set, which means the Eagles accounted for 19 of their own first 25 points.
 
In set two the Eagles had a few issues in serve-receive early on as Menlo exploited them with tough serving for three aces in the second. The Eagles also had some issues with setting the ball in the second, getting called for multiple doubles and giving a few free points to the Oaks.
 
However, later in the set Biola had a four-point run in the middle of the set that opened up the lead from 10-9 to 14-9 and sealed the victory despite the tough play from the home school in the middle set. Also, it was an Eagles service ace that sealed the set at 25-21 to get Biola to the 2-0 advantage and one set away from sealing yet another sweep.
 
The Eagles saw their attack numbers take a slight dip in the middle of the match as the front row and back row had a bit of trouble getting in sync in the second frame. Lucky for Biola Menlo's hitting percentage dipped below .100 in set two which opened up opportunities to come back from some of the miscues
 
All of those numbers rebounded in the third set as Biola worked its way to the 25-16 clinching set victory.
 
Christine DenBoer stood out in the final set with four of her 10 total kills coming in the set off of a 4-for-6 attacking performance. She helped the Eagles' outsides end the match with 34 of Biola's 39 total kills.
 
The win moves Biola to 12-0 (4-0 GSAC) and drops Menlo to 0-13 (0-4 GSAC). Biola's next match comes at home on Tuesday night for an epic showdown with Westmont (10-2, 3-0 GSAC).