HILO, Hawaii --- Biola Volleyball continues to make history in 2017. The Eagles were the first Biola team to play a PacWest Conference event, the first team to win a PacWest event and now they've become the first Biola team to play and win in Hawaii as a member of the PacWest.
 
The Eagles landed on the island two days ago and after some sightseeing and time at the beach, they got to the real business of the trip late Friday night and earned a 3-1 (25-19, 25-23, 23-25, 25-19) victory over Hawaii-Hilo to improve to 2-2 in PacWest play this season.
 
The Eagles cruised through the first set after building a sizeable early lead and staying ahead. They battled back from a very large deficit in order to take a narrow win in set two.
 
After a 10-minute intermission, Hilo came out determined and this time did not relinquish an early-set lead. After trailing by four points quickly, Biola fought back to tie things a few times throughout the set, but a third chance at set point ultimately clinched UHH's 25-23 third-set victory. It was Biola that came out refocused in the fourth. The Eagles got a kill from Hannah Van Warmerdam to begin the set and never once trailed en route to a Bekah Roth/Brooke Watts block to seal the match with a 25-19 win.
 
Watts stole the show all night long. She was all over the floor in just her second match back from injury and ended up leading the team with 13 kills and a .276 attack percentage. The sophomore outside hitter was crucial in the Eagles' set one and set two wins, hitting nearly .600 in the early going. She would add five blocks and a pair of digs to her line to cap the impressive night.
 
Karly Dantuma was the attacker who came on late to help the Eagles close out the match. She piled on six of her 11 kills in the final two sets, including a run of three in a row early in the decisive fourth set. She was in on two blocks too, contributing to the Eagles' 14-11 blocking advantage.
 
Tess Van Grouw was critical to the success on Friday night with Sami Hover playing a slightly reduced role. Van Grouw was as steady as ever, earning herself 27 digs and adding five assists as the only Eagle to suit up as libero. Her 27 digs put her just eight shy of 1,400 career digs. She'd be just the fourth Eagle ever to hit that number. If she can reach 1,466 in her career she'd rank second all-time.
 
The win pushes Biola to an overall record of 8-4 and brings the team back to level in conference competitions following back-to-back heartbreaking five-set losses. The win keeps them just two games back from conference leaders Azusa Pacific and California Baptist.
 
The Hawaiian road trip comes to a close on Saturday evening. The Eagles face-off with Hawaii Pacific (5-8, 3-2 PacWest) at 10:00 p.m. pacific time.