SIOUX CITY, Iowa --- Pool Play comes to a close at the 2016 Volleyball National Championships on Thursday as all 32 teams play their final pool play matchups inside of the Tyson Event Center. Pool D will finish out with the No. 1 seeded Lindsey Wilson Blue Raiders (2-0) facing No. 2 seeded MidAmerica Nazarene (1-1) and Biola (1-1) facing the No. 4 seed Tabor (0-2).
The Eagles and Bluejays play in the first round of matches during the day with a 7:00 a.m. PT scheduled start time. Biola controls its own destiny as a win over Tabor would earn the team a No. 2 finish in the pool and help the team advance out of pool play for the seventh year in a row.
Check out more information about the match and opponent below.
Tabor College is savoring its first-ever trip to the NAIA Volleyball National Championship. The Bluejays earned their way to Sioux City via a runner-up finish in the KCAC Tournament and won their opening round matchup at Wayland Baptist in four sets to make it in as the fourth seed in Pool D. The Bluejays were the runner-up in the Kansas Collegiate Athletics Conference during the regular season with a 20-2 conference record. Tabor was 25-9 through the end of the regular season.
Biola and Tabor have never met before in regular season or postseason competition. The Eagles and Bluejays have two shared opponents this season, which happen to be the two other members of Pool D. Tabor went 0-2 against MidAmerica Nazarene this year with a five-set loss and today's three-set loss. The Bluejays lost in three to Lindsey Wilson yesterday. Biola was 1-1 against those two teams, with both matches coming earlier in this tournament.
Tena Loewen (#15) is the player to watch for the Bluejays. She comes into the match with the fifth-most kills in all of the NAIA this season. The senior outside hitter comes into play today with 567 kills in 2016. She's also got a wicked good serve as she ranks inside of the top-10 in the nation in service aces with 77.
A win for Biola and a win for Lindsey Wilson would have Biola advance to the round of 32 and face Hastings (NE) on Friday morning. A win for Biola and a loss from Lindsey Wilson would knot three teams at No. 1 in Pool D and force a three-way playoff on Thursday night for the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds. A loss from Biola and a loss by MidAmerica Nazarene would force a one-set playoff between Biola, Tabor and MidAmerica Nazarene for the No. 2 seed. A loss from Biola and a loss by Lindsey Wilson would eliminate Biola and Tabor.
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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