Box Score
SIOUX CITY, Iowa --- For the first hour and 15 minutes of play on Thursday morning No. 21 Biola Volleyball had its back up against the wall in a big way. The Eagles lost the first two sets and had to defend three match points against Tabor Bluejays to avoid a sweep. They did that and turned the tables completely to earn a gritty five-set win (22-25, 18-25, 27-25, 25-21, 15-11).
 
"It was quite the roller coaster ride today," said Head Coach Aaron Seltzer.
 
Facing a 24-22 deficit in the third set Biola's defense took over to help BU avoid a sweep. The longest rally of the morning resulted in an Ally Forsberg kill to help Biola defend match point one. Involved in that rally was some incredible acrobatic digs from Brinley Beresford and Kaitlin O'Brien.
 
The next point was equally important as the Eagles still faced defeat if they lost it. It was not as long of a rally though as a Hannah Van Warmerdam serve got the Bluejays out of system and forced a bad attack that knotted the game at 24.
 
Even after defending that second match point there was still no room to breathe as BU had to start finding some more points to grasp its first set win. Unfortunately, the next point went to Tabor as another long rally was ended by the fifth-best attacker in the nation, Tena Loewen.
 
Loewen could not close the match down though as her attack in the rally after next was dug by Beresford and set by Tess Van Grouw to Stephanie Jewett who finished to make it a 26-25 Biola advantage. After that the set was clinched in favor of Biola when tabor made its ninth attack error of the game to lift BU to the 27-25 win.
 
"Hats off to Tabor. They gave us all we could handle for two and a half sets and we had to had a severe gut check moment in order to get by them," said Seltzer. "Hannah stepped up and served really well late in that set and it helped us get over the hump once, which gave us the confidence we needed."
 
After that it was an entirely new team on the floor for Biola as they turned a 6-2 disadvantage in blocks to a 15-11.5 advantage and began to play a lot tougher defense against a Bluejays attack that hit well over .200 through the first two sets.
 
Biola's best attacking game of the match came in thr fourth set, which was right when it needed it the most. The Eagles landed a match-high 17 kills and hit .220 as they worked a 25-21 set win that felt even bigger than that since the confidence was absolutely oozing out of the Biola bench.
 
The fourth set ended with a bang as BU scored the final five points after going down 21-20. Three of those five points came by way of the block as Biola's front row got big in the biggest moment. The set clincher was scored by way of a service ace from Van Grouw. It was her only ace of the day and one of five that Biola had.
 
Olivia Sorensen was in on all three of those blocks down the stretch of that fourth set. She had a superb match and really stepped up as the senior leader on this team. She was in on nine of the Eagles' 15 total blocks and was second on the squad with 10 kills in the middle (.231 hitting %).
 
"There comes a point in time when you really have to start to apply the things we've talked about and looked at," said Seltzer. "I thought that they started getting back in the match by winning the mental battle and caring enough to focus on the other side."
 
Seltzer, Assistant Coach Abbie Wright and Sorensen all stepped into the huddle foe a quick pep talk before the fifth set and whatever they said got the team off to a fast start.
 
The Eagles soared out to an 8-3 lead in the deciding set, which helped them play free and easy after the side switch with plenty of wiggle room in the final rallies.
 
The Bluejays outscored Biola 8-7 following the side switch and defended four match points, but it made no difference at all as Brooke Watts slammed one down the line to lock up the match at 15-11 and clinch the Eagles' spot in the tournament's round of 16.
 
Watts ended with seven kills on 16 swings and had four blocks as she stepped up in a big way after not playing a whole lot early in the match. Karly Dantuma was the Eagles' other huge weapon in this match as she finished with a team-high 15 kills on 35 attack attempts and found her way to be in on six blocks. Her .314 hitting percentage was the best she's had in any of the pool play matches.
 
The win allows Biola to advance out of Pool D with a 2-1 pool play record. The Eagles (26-10) will face No. 3 Hastings (29-3) at 1:45 p.m. PT on Friday. It is a single-elimination match as part of the tournament's round of 16.