LA MIRADA, Calif. --- Facing each other for the second time this season on Saturday evening is La Sierra and No. 21 Biola Volleyball. This meeting is a whole lot more important than the last time these two sides squared off. This time the Eagles and Golden Eagles meet inside of Chase Gym with a trip to Sioux City, Iowa on the line in a NAIA National Championship Opening Round matchup.
This is La Sierra's third trip to the national tournament and Biola's 16th. This will be the first time Biola is hosting an Opening Round matchup. Biola hasn't played in the opening round in a decade as it traditionally advances straight to the NAIA National Championship Final Site. This year the Eagles were the first team to miss an opportunity to go straight through to Iowa as the national raters dropped the team from 19th to 21st in the final poll as some teams below BU worked upsets at their respective conference tournaments.
Speaking of upsets in a conference tournament...La Sierra earned its opening round berth by becoming the surprise winner of the CalPac conference tournament. The Golden Eagles were the No 4 seed in that tournament and ended up winning the whole enchilada after knocking off the No. 1 seed Benedictine-Mesa in five sets last week. Biola earned its spot in the national tournament field via an at-large berth. The Golden State Athletic Conference does not have a conference tournament, so it only has one automatic bid to the tournament field, which undefeated No. 1 Westmont snagged this year after winning the GSAC regular season title.
The last time these two sides met was all the way back on Sept. 2 during the first day of the Hope International Labor Day tournament. The match was close in every single set as Biola narrowly escaped with a 3-2 victory (25-20, 25-20, 22-25, 23-25, 15-12) to improve its record at the time to 6-4. The Golden Eagles dropped to 0-3 with that loss. Following that match Biola went 17-5 over the remainder of its regular season and La Sierra went 15-9.
The most glaring difference between the two sides is in the level of competition they've faced this season. The Golden Eagles have faced just one ranked team this season. That one ranked team was their meeting with Biola, which was ranked No. 19 when the two sides met. The Eagles on the other hand had 12 meetings with teams that were either ranked or receiving votes when they played. Biola was 5-7 in those matchups, but had to play seven of those matches against teams currently ranked inside of the top-8 in the nation.
Statistically, Biola has the advantage in just about all of the major categories. The place where La Sierra will be most dangerous is in the serve. The Golden Eagles have a slight edge over Biola in that category and rank No. 8 in all of the NAIA with almost 2.3 service aces per set this season. La Sierra has four student-athletes who are all above-average servers with at least 40 aces this season. Biola has two servers with 40 or more aces, led by freshman sensation
Anna Houser (52).
Biola's diverse attack is what should set it apart in this weekend's contest. The Eagles have five players with more than 150 kills this season and have two others that are right there. The team has had to be creative in who is hitting the ball because its been riddled with injuries this season at just about every position. Even still Head Coach
Aaron Seltzer's side ranks No. 30 in the NAIA in kills (13.2 per set) and inside the top-50 in hitting percentage (.213). The Eagles are also a step up from most teams in the back row, with its all-conference captain
Tess Van Grouw leading the way at the libero spot.
Karly Dantuma (15 kills),
Hannah van Warmerdam (15 kills) and
Ally Forsberg (12 kills), who's been poised for a big game as of late, led the Eagles' attack last time against La Sierra. Look for them to step up again to lead the charge this Saturday.
The opening serve for Saturday's match is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. Information on tickets, parking and more can be found
here. Biola students, faculty and staff will be admitted free of charge.
