For the second day in a row Biola Volleyball enters its match as the underdog. The Eagles are going up against a Lindsey Wilson squad with just a single loss this season that is one of the handful of teams favored to win the title at this week's tournament. These two sides are meeting for the third time all-time and the first time since 2013. Both of the previous meetings were at the NAIA Volleyball National Championship final site as Biola and Lindsey Wilson were also in the same pool in 2012 and 2013. Both previous times Biola advanced out of the pool and LWC did not. This year is much, much different as both teams have aspirations of advancing.
Lindsey Wilson is one of the most dangerous teams in the tournament field with an attack that is No. 1 in the NAIA in kills-per-set (14.3) and No. 2 in the nation in hitting percentage (.288). The offense is very well distributed as the team's setters have a deep stable of talented attackers to distribute the ball to. This is a change from 2015 when the team had two primary attackers (both with more than 440 kills) and were not as well rounded. LWC made a deep tournament run in 2015 (lost in three in NAIA Semifinals), but it has hopes of going even further this year after making wholesale changes in the offseason. Three of their eight players with 100+ kills are new to the team this year, including their leading attacker.
The Blue Raiders are also one of the most diverse teams in the NAIA, with seven varsity players from outside of the country.
Lindsey Wilson's lone loss of the season came at the hands of conference foe Georgetown back in late-September. The Tigers beat the Blue Raiders in four sets in their first meeting of the year. LWC avenged that loss with a five-set win just a few weeks later and another in the conference tournament championship.The Blue Raiders are used to dominating their opponents this season, with 27 of their 32 victories coming in three sets. If Biola wants to make some noise on the floor on Wednesday the best way to do so would be to take the first set and push Lindsey Wilson back on its heels early on.
The two teams have faced two common opponents this season: The Master's and Grand View. Lindsey Wilson beat the Mustangs in three and beat Grand View in a nail-biter of a five-set match (15-13). The Eagles were 1-2 against that group of opponents, earning a sweep of The Master's on senior night, losing in five to them on the road and suffering a nail-biter of a five-set loss to Grand View (12-15).
Lindsey Wilson's best aspect of their win on Tuesday to open pool play was their attack efficiency (.276 hitting %) and their huge advantage in blocks (11.5 to 2). Five of their players eclipsed at least seven kills with Eileen Acuna leading the way with 11 on a team-high 31 swings. Both of those strengths are similar to what carried the Eagles to their own three-set victory. Biola hit .269 as a team and eclipsed 10 blocks for the fifth match in a row. The blocking efforts as of late have been a huge step up for Head Coach
Aaron Seltzer's team after it had just four double-digit blocking efforts in the previous 29 times out.
Watch the match LIVE via
NAIANetwork.com. The NAIA offers a single-day video pass for $9.95, a pool play pass for $24.95, a tournament pass for $39.95 or an ALL tournament pass (all NAIA tournaments for 2016-17) for $75.00.
Biola is producing and audio-only live broadcast for free (featuring play-by-play from Josh Banker) at its own
video portal. The NAIA has an agreement that does not allow teams to produce live video of the match, but the video broadcast will be released in the on demand portion of our video portal 48 hours following the event.
The NAIA also provides live statistics of the match via DakStats Webcasts. Visit
this page for live statistics throughout the tournament. Fans can also follow us on our social media (@BiolaAthletics). Twitter updates will be available throughout the tournament and highlights, photos and more will be posted to our Facebook account.
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