WAIKOLOA, Hawaii --- After a long break from action and a long day of flying to the Big Island of Hawaii, the Biola Eagles began play at the Dennis Rose Intercollegiate at the Waikoloa Resort King's Course on Monday.

The No. 2-ranked Western Washington Vikings jumped out to the early lead over the other 14 teams in the field with a -8 (280) as a team. But the Eagles had a good day of their own, turning in a particularly strong finish on their final nine holes of the day to finish ahead of four other PacWest teams and take ninth-place after round one.

"The team got off to a solid start, one under thru four holes but then struggled quite a bit in the middle of the round," said Head Coach Cory Page. "They finished really strong on the last three holes and Austin Bishop played really well on his second nine today, shooting 2 under, for a well-earned, even-par round of 72."

Bishop's 72 continues a strong stretch of play for the senior despite the long layoff from the Eagles' last action. The Glendora, California native's position in 16th place actually puts him just two strokes outside the top-five of the individual leaderboard and is definitely a nice follow-up to his score of 68 in the Vanguard Dual Match on Sept. 21.

Fellow seniors Dominic Ariondo, Benjamin Crumley and Kyle McAbee all carded scores of 80 or better to follow close behind Bishop. Ariondo picked up his two birdies during the day on the course's front nine while Crumley played rock-solid during his final stretch to play even-par over his final seven holes, including and birdie on the par-five hole four. That allowed Crumley to finish with a 76, just one stroke in front of McAbee who played +1 over his second nine on Monday.

Biola will begin play on Tuesday with a one-stroke lead over Saint Martin's and Cal State Dominguez Hills and sit five shots behind eighth-place Cal State Monterey Bay.

"We are looking forward to getting out there tomorrow and making a move up the leaderboard, we definitely all feel like we can improve a lot from what we did today", said Ben Crumley after play on Monday.

The second round is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. Pacific Time.