LA MIRADA, Calif. --- Last week was a roller coaster ride of emotions on this journey with the 2018 Biola Volleyball team. The Eagles will look for a fresh start with a new set of challenges this week when they'll be split between home and away.

LAST WEEK: W vs RV Chaminade, 3-0; L vs Hawaii Hilo, 2-3; W vs Hawaii Pacific, 3-0 (2-1 weekly record; 9-5 overall record; 5-2 PacWest)

THIS WEEK: vs Concordia Irvine (5-10, 4-3 PacWest) - Wednesday Sept. 26 at 7:00 p.m.; at Fresno Pacific (4-11, 3-3 PacWest) - Friday Sept. 28 at 6:00 p.m.

MULTIMEDIA: All matches will be live streamed and have live statistics available. As always, the Biola live broadcast is free at portal.stretchinternet.com/biola. Catch Josh Banker on the call for Wednesday's match. The Fresno Pacific match will be live streamed at https://portal.stretchinternet.com/fpu/ ($).

TICKETS: Biola athletic events are free for all current Biola students and alumni and Biola faculty and staff. For guests, general admission tickets are available for six dollars, discounted rates are four dollars and children 12 and under are free. Tickets are available at the door on a cash only basis. Fresno Pacific charges $5 general admission and $3 admission for seniors and children between six and 12 years old.

BIOLA (9-5, 5-2) vs. CONCORDIA IRVINE (5-10, 4-3): Wednesday Sept. 26 at 7:00 p.m. \\ Live Stats \\ Live Video
Never ever overlook a Biola vs. Concordia matchup in volleyball. These matches almost always end up being instant classics that provide extreme highs and crushing lows (remember last year's PacWest-opening win?). Concordia has not been off to its best start during this 2018 season, but the visiting Eagles still have a winning mark in PacWest play and will be surging with confidence after ending last week with a big 3-2 win over Chaminade. Biola controls this all-time series with a 41-20 overall mark against the green and gold Eagles. BU has also won the last three meetings dating back to 2014. Concordia's offense features one of the best volume hitters in the conference in Patience O'Neal. The freshman opposite hitter is currently fourth in the conference in kills-per-set with an average of 3.15. She's got 148 total kills on a solid enough hitting percentage of .238. Biola's serve-receive will need to be ready, because CUI also has the conference's top server (in terms of aces-per-set) in Riley Gill. Gill, a sophomore from Carlsbad has 19 aces this year to give her an average of one almost every other set. Biola and Concordia are two of the best blocking teams in the PacWest, so look for a lot of stuffs in this matchup. Both teams come into play averaging over two blocks-per-set. However, they both are among the top-3 in the conference in avoiding hitting into the block, so we will see.

BIOLA (9-5, 5-2) at FRESNO PACIFIC (4-11, 3-3): Friday Sept. 28 at 6:00 p.m. \\ Live Stats \\ Live Video ($) \\ Previous Result: Biola def. FPU, 3-0
Fresno Pacific is Biola's first repeat opponent of the 2018 PacWest season. The Eagles hosted the Sunbirds the second week of September and came away with a dominant 3-0 (25-20, 25-18, 25-16) victory. The win was powered by the Eagles' 11 service aces, which is still by far a season-best. Sierra Bauder (9), Karly Dantuma (7) and Bekah Roth (6) led Biola in kills and hit a combined .410 in that match. The win helped Biola improve its all-time record against Fresno Pacific to 27-46. A win on Friday would help BU improve to 3-0 against the Sunbirds in the NCAA Division II era. Just as Biola features a conference weekly award winner in Sierra Bauder, Fresno Pacific has the reigning PacWest Player of the Week on its roster in Christina Tran. Tran, a junior setter, recorded a triple double for the Sunbirds in their week-opening loss at Notre Dame de Namur and also had good performances in wins over Holy Names and Academy of Art to earn the honor. It's Tran's first conference weekly honor, and also the first for Fresno Pacific this year. Biola was able to neutralize FPU's dynamic setter the last time these two teams met, holding her to a -.188 hitting percentage in 16 attack attempts and just two assists.
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ABOUT LAST WEEK: Biola Volleyball begin its week with a LOUD BANG. The Eagles doled out a 3-0 beating to the Chaminade Silverswords, who came into the match on Monday with a sparking 9-0 overall record and had only lost FOUR SETS all year. The week ended up not being a great one for Chaminade, who went 1-3 on their SoCal road trip with losses also coming to Azusa Pacific (3-0) and Point Loma (3-2). The star team that came over from the islands ended up being Hawaii Hilo, which went 3-1 on the week and sits in second place in the PacWest Conference standings after stunning your Eagles with an 18-16 fifth-set win on Thursday evening in Chase Gym. That match felt eerily similar to Point Loma's surprise five-set win inside of Chase Gym last season. Head Coach Aaron Seltzer's team once again proved its steely resolve by coming back out on Saturday and, despite some key injuries and the fatigue of a busy, sweeping Hawaii Pacific to finish the week on a high note. Christina DenBoer was the outstanding player for Biola this past week, putting up over one kill-per-set (34 total) and one dig-per-set (33 total) and carrying the burden of playing every bit of each of the three matches. The week also saw a great personal accomplishment as senior right side Karly Dantuma recorded her 1,000th career kill on Thursday night. She had one of her best weeks of the season, leading the team with 36 kills and hitting .396.

THIRD SET SETBACK: Biola began its season with six consecutive matches where it lost the third set. The Eagles finally have gotten to a point where this week they could bring their record in third sets back to even with a pair of set three wins. The Eagles went 2-1 in the third set this past week and are now 6-8 on the season in the third frame. It is the only set where Biola has a "losing record."

GSAC ROYALTY: This week has a bit of a nostalgic feel to it as Biola, Fresno Pacific and Concordia Irvine are all part of a group that used to dominate Golden State Athletic Conference and NAIA volleyball for many years. The three programs have a combined 17 Golden State Athletic Conference titles and seven NAIA National Championships. The three teams were all part of the NAIA semifinals in the same year three times, including two years (2007, 08) where all final four teams came from the GSAC. At least two of these three were in the semifinals six times in total. To this point, only Concordia has managed to break through in the PacWest, winning the title in 2016, but Biola is just two matches behind conference rivals Azusa Pacific and is gunning for the title this year.

MY PLACE, YOUR PLACE OR THEIR PLACE: Location has not mattered much to Biola Volleyball this season as their nine wins are split evenly with three at home, three on the road and three at neutral site locations. Biola will look to improve to 4-1 and home and 4-1 on the road with their contests this week. The Eagles have not lost a home match to Concordia Irvine since the 2014 season (a 3-2 loss). The Eagles' last road loss to FPU was all the way back in the 2010 season when the Sunbirds were No. 1 in the NAIA and the Eagles were No. 3 (it was a sweep).

SIERRA'S SMACKDOWN: Senior middle blocker Sierra Bauder was named the PacWest Conference Defensive Player of the Week because of her work around the net in Biola's Hawaiian trifecta. She entered the week with 35 blocks on the season and put up 15 this week alone (1.36 per-set) to put the Eagles in good position to win and help hold opponents to a .150 hitting percentage. Bauder now sits fourth in the conference in block-per-set at just under one.

ROAD TO 1,000 (AND THEN SOME): Senior opposite hitter Karly Dantuma has now passed the 1,000 kill plateau (CONGRATS) and sits at 1,025. Dantuma also has a chance to eclipse 300 career blocks (259). If she does that she'd be just the fourth player in Biola history to have 1,000+ kills and 300+ blocks (Becky Miller, Amy Weststeyn, Michelle Warkentin).

SELTZER'S SEVENTEENTH: Seltzer is in his 17th season at the helm of the BU Volleyball squad. He's the winningest coach in program history with an all-time mark of 441-138 (.762). He's never experienced a losing season during his tenure at Biola (or even come close, with his "worst" mark being 19-11). His teams have won at least 26 matches every year since 2010.

BIRD IS THE WORD: The bird streak is once again on the line this week (TWICE). The opportunity for victory over the Concordia Eagles and Fresno Pacific Sunbirds could see Biola stretch its streak to a new high of 32 consecutive wins over programs with bird-related mascots. If it is still active, the Eagles would have their next chance to extend their streak against the Dominican Penguins (4-7, 2-4 PacWest) next Friday.

NEXT WEEK: vs. Azusa Pacific (10/3 at 7:00 p.m. - COME HUNGRY, 250 FREE Chick-Fil-A sandwiches); vs. Dominican (10/5 at 6:00 p.m.)