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O'Brien/Hover dig a ball
3
Winner BIOLA BU-VB 4-3
0
Sonoma State SSU 4-5
Winner
BIOLA BU-VB
4-3
3
Final
0
Sonoma State SSU
4-5
Set Scores
Team 1 2 3 F
BIOLA BU-VB 25 25 25 (3)
Sonoma State SSU 11 21 11 (0)

Game Recap: Volleyball |

A Sweep Rebound

Biola outhits, outdefends and outserves Sonoma State to earn its first 3-0 win of 2018.

AZUSA, Calif. --- The script completely flipped between Biola's morning match and afternoon match on Saturday at the NCAA West Region Showcase. The Eagles suffered their first 3-0 loss of the year in the opener but rebounded incredibly with a fantastic team effort in the nightcap, earning their first 3-0 win of the season by knocking down Sonoma State (25-11; 25-21; 25-11).

"I thought this was by far our best match of the year," said Head Coach Aaron Seltzer.

The victory was keyed by some outstanding individual performances from three Biola "seniors", Karly Dantuma, Sierra Bauder and Christina DenBoer. Also, some super sweet serving from Kaitlin O'Brien led Biola to several long runs of points resulting in the lopsided set one and set three victories.

DenBoer's insertion seemed to energize the Eagles after she sat out the morning match nursing injury. The redshirt sophomore led the team with 12 kills, a season-best, and hit .333, also a season-best to pace a dominant offensive effort.

Bauder and Dantuma were also a part of the Eagles' ability to out-kill the Seawolves 37-30 and out-hit them by over .300 (.361 for the match). Bauder had seven kills on 11 swings with no errors (.636), Dantuma was 8-13-2 (.462).

"That is a good trio to have," said Seltzer. "They did well for us all day."

The .361 team hitting percentage was by far the Eagles' best of the season. It would not have been possible without a solid passing performance in the back and the 28 assists provided by Brinley Beresford and Vanessa Garcia.

Biola had multiple long runs that kept their spirits high and sped up the match, which was over in a tidy 70 minutes. The first set was essentially one long run of good play as BU got out to a 6-5 advantage and then won 11 of the next 13 points after Sonoma State was disputing a scoring issue at 6-5. After a little bit of back-and-forth brought the match to 19-11, the Eagles won the final six points in order to start 1-0.

The second set was more competitive as the Seawolves had their best hitting performance of the match by hitting .213 (they hit negative in the other two sets). Biola was actually trailing as late as 20-19 in that one, but again ended the frame with a great run to lock it up at 25-21.

The deciding set certainly was not the Eagles' best offensive set ever, but it was one of the best at the service line. This is where O'Brien really made her presence known by serving up four aces with a seven-point stretch in the middle of an 11-point run for BU. That 11-point run gave the Eagles a 17-8 advantage that there was no coming back from.

"Kate did a great job serving. I don't think we've quite had a run like that in awhile," said Seltzer. "That does not usually happen at the college level."

After SSU won two of the next three, the Eagles slammed the door closed with seven out of the final eight, punctuated by Dantuma's eighth and final kill of the match.

Biola cleaned up its serve receive in the second match, allowing its opponent zero service aces for the first time this season. The Eagles had seven aces of their own and limited errors to five, which is just one more than their season-low.

Sami Hover led the defensive effort with 11 digs to bring her preseason total to rest at 127 (4.54/set). That set total is right about where Tess Van Grouw was at last season on her way to setting the program record for digs in a season.

Biola ends its it preseason with a 4-3 record and has its next match due up this Saturday when it hosts Fresno Pacific (0-7) for the PacWest Conference opener.
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