Box Score COSTA MESA, Calif. --- A win over Vanguard inside of  "The PIT" on Saturday night is exactly the story No. 19 Biola Volleyball wanted to be able to tell as it closed the book on its 2016 regular season. The Eagles took down the Lions by winning three sets in a row after dropping the first to win 3-1 (17-25, 25-22, 25-20, 25-18) and end the slate 23-9.

"It was a match we had to have and I thought we played really well and focused in," said Head Coach Aaron Seltzer.
 
The first set was a major letdown as the Eagles had high hopes of making quick work of the host school in what's been a very challenging year for the Lions. Biola allowed Vanguard to score nine of 11 points in the middle of the set to build a big lead it never relinquished in its eventual 25-17 set victory.

"In game one they came out in a lineup we were not expecting and it caught us off guard," said Seltzer.
 
While the Lions may have won that battle the Eagles were able to win the war by flipping the script immediately with a decisive second set win that put them on their way to victory.
 
The story of the second set was Biola's 7-0 start to the period. The Eagles came out firing on all cylinders as it got two points from kills, a service ace (one of six in the match) and three Vanguard attacking errors to build a strong early lead.
 
The two kills were from Karly Dantuma and Hannah van Warmerdam, who led the Eagles throughout the match with 11 kills and eight kills, respectively.

"Karly really got her timing back tonight and played really, really big," said Seltzer.
 
Vanguard had a bit of a run of its own late in the second set, but could never bring it back to closer than the three-point differential that ended the set.
 
Biola's blockers made a huge impact on the outcome of the final three sets. Three of the Eagles' 10 blocks in the match came in the second set and Olivia Sorensen was in on all three of them as the senior had a terrific night at the net.
 
In the third and fourth sets the Eagles were able to keep the Lions a bit more at arms length in order to hold on and come away with the 3-1 match victory. The closest Vanguard would come to a lead past the halfway point n either of those sets is when they rattled off four points in a row late in the third to tighten the frame to 20-21 before Biola won the final four points, with Tess Van Grouw serving, to clinch a 25-21 set win.
 
Biola got out to a huge (12-3) lead in the fourth to which Vanguard never came close. The Eagles improved to 23-9 with the win, while the lions dropped to 13-20 overall. Biola finishes second in the Golden State Athletic Conference with a 13-3 record.
 
The Eagles had to overcome a match when they were not operating quite at peak efficiency to still walk away with a win. BU hit just .129 for the match, but was helped greatly by its servers (six aces), blockers (10 blocks) and a very active back row (50 digs). Van Grow led the effort with 19 digs in four sets, while setter Brinley Beresford also brought a lot to the back row wit eight digs of her own.
 
Biola will find out its postseason fate on Monday morning at 8:00 a.m. via the NAIA's Live Selection Show. Watch the show at THIS LINK to see if BU will go straight to Sioux City for nationals or have to play a play-in game on Nov. 19.