LA MIRADA, Calif. --- Biola handed Seattle Pacific its first loss on Saturday by playing the Falcons' own game against them. The Eagles got an early goal from Sarah Jeffries and made it stand with whole-team defense and great saves from keeper Viviana Poli to bring home the 1-0 win.

"We beat a really good side in Seattle Pacific and I don't think we've seen a team of their caliber yet this season," said Head Coach Erin Brunelle. "It required us to play with great grit and intensity than we have this season but our ladies stepped up to that challenge. We prepared well all week for this match so I was very pleased with the effort they showed tonight."

Seattle Pacific came into the match with a habit of taking early leads in 2018. The Falcons had scored a goal in the first eight minutes during four of their first five matches but were unable to continue the trend on Saturday thanks to an Eagles' clearance on an SPU corner and Poli's first save of the contest.

Four minutes after Poli's save it was Sarah Jeffries and the Eagles who would take the early advantage as Biola exploited the space the Falcons left down the right sideline and eventually found their way into the SPU penalty area. Annmarie Alvarez put the ball at Jeffries feet at the right corner of the box and Jeffries one-touch lobbed the ball over Abby Smith's head and inside the left post for her first goal of the season.

"Anytime you can score a goal early in the match it kind of settles yourself down a little bit. But it also might awaken the beast in the other team and I really felt like we had to hold onto dear life for a lot of that game," said Brunelle. "But that first half goal was crucial. I told the team right after the game that scoring in the first half was the difference with how much they put us under pressure in the second half. We bent but we didn't break and that was good for our ladies to see."

As it would turn out, the Eagles made the most out of what they got on offense in the contest. Jeffries' strike was the only shot-on-goal the home team would take in the match and the Eagles found it difficult to take shots of any kind during the second half because of how well the visiting Falcons were able to possess the ball in their system.

After Biola kept the Falcons in check through the first half, Poli really stepped to centerstage in the second half of play and was supported by a lot of hard work from the midfielders and backline before her. The freshman keeper made four saves in the second half, including two denials that seemed like surefire goal chances for SPU to turn in her first clean sheet of the season.

Just 63 seconds after the start of the second half, Poli made an excellent jump off her line and cutoff Julia DeVere's shot on a clean breakaway to keep the score in Biola's favor. Then Poli came up with the highlight of the night a few minutes later when she made a diving punch on a rocket launched from 22 yards out by Sophia Chilczuk.

"Viviana came up with huge saves in the second half. Those two saves could've easily been a tying and a go-ahead goal for them," said Brunelle. "She's been growing this season just having to play as many minutes as she has as a freshman. But she's been training well and building her confidence and hopefully this will help grow her confidence even more."

Poli's final two saves of the match were a little more routine thanks to the work of Biola's defense to limit clean looks. The trio of Hali Oakes, Katelyn Penner and Danielle Strickler, along with freshman Sierra Rangel, consistently prevented the Falcons from utilizing their forward passing lanes. And outside backs Colie Martin and Aubrey Fergeson supplemented the stability of Alyssa Chavez and Devin Gooch by serving as threats up and down their respective sidelines all night long.

Biola is now 34-0-4 in matches in which it has scored a goal since the start of the 2016 season and the win continues the undefeated streak for the Eagles' fall sports programs in events hosted on campus so far in 2018-19.

The Eagles will move one step within the start of their conference season next week as they take on Point Loma on Wednesday and Concordia on Saturday in matches that do not count towards PacWest records.