SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. --- Biola Volleyball's preseason continues to be quite the adventure. Friday's challenge was dealing with the fact the team had to play their match with CSU Monterey Bay three hours earlier than they anticipated.
 
The team seemed unfazed by the change, putting in what Head Coach Aaron Seltzer called their best performance of the year en route to a 3-0 (25-23, 25-22, 25-18) win over the Otters.
 
"That was our best match of the year," said Seltzer. "They were checked in, engaged and followed the plan to the tee. CSUMB was the best team here, I think. That's a very good win against a very good team."
 
Biola's biggest advantages in the match came at the service line and in the back row. The Eagles managed 11 aces to the Otters' four and ended the match with more kills on fewer swings than CSUMB because of the great work from Tess Van Grouw, Sami Hover and Kaitlin O'Brien.
 
BU never trailed in the opening set. The score was tied twice early on, but the Eagles used a run of four consecutive points (three kills and an ace) to establish a solid lead at 8-4. The lead remained unthreatened throughout until the Otters' found a way to pull within a point at 24-23. However, a Savannah Hilde kill set up by Brinley Beresford ended things at 25-23 and got the Eagles off to a good start.

The most stressful portion of the match came in the middle third of the second set. Monterey Bay was rolling and had built a 16-11 lead with a slam from their leading attacker, Maddy Underwood.

It was gut check time for this young Biola team and everybody stepped up. BU won nine of the next 10 rallies to flip the set on its head and turn the entire feel of the match around making it 20-17. Attacks from Hilde, Karly Dantuma and Sabrina Winslow secured the set win and earned the Eagles a 2-0 advantage.
 
"Getting back in a taking game two sealed it," said Seltzer. "It was a mental toughness showed. You cannot play A+ volleyball the entire match. You struggle in small spurts. Today we did that but bounced back well."
 
Biola again never trailed in a dominant third set. They stormed out to an 8-3 advantage, expanded it to 14-7 and then continued to roll until they clinched the match with a Beresford and Sierra Bauder block making it 25-18.
 
Beresford had her best match of the season and was the only setter to appear for the Eagles in this one. She finished up with 37 assists and had four kills on six setter dump attempts, which added a lot to varied BU offense. She also contributed well to the Eagles' great service game, adding a season-best four aces in her 15 attempts.
 
Hover also had four service aces, tying with Beresford for the team-lead. She was second to Van Grouw with nine digs and had a great overall match, helping the Eagles deal with being out-swung in every set except the first.
 
"Our trio of DSs were spot on," said Seltzer. "It was also Brinley's best match of the year. She was distributing the ball really well.
 
Biola improves to 5-1 with the victory and continues their NorCal tour tomorrow with a pair of contests at San Francisco State. The Eagles begin the day with a 9:00 a.m. match against Alaska-Fairbanks and close out the 2017 NCAA Division II West Region Showcase with a 5:00 p.m. contest with Cal Poly Pomona. CSUMB fell to 4-2 with the loss. The Otters had won 13 of their 16 sets played coming into today, including three consecutive 3-0 wins.
 
Follow the matches via live video at this link and live stats here.