LA MIRADA, Calif. --- It was great to see Biola back in Chase Gymnasium on Friday night, albeit just for a brief 62-minute span. Head Coach Aaron Seltzer's team showed up and showed out in their second home match of the season, absolutely crushing visiting Academy of Art in three sets (25-18; 25-15; 25-13).
"I was super stoked about how we rallied together to take this match," said redshirt freshman
Abby Brewster. "Everyone stepped up, trusted each other and played confidently, which was so fun."Â
It was a great confidence-boosting match for Seltzer's squad right on the heels of the team's toughest two-week stretch of the season. The Eagles were dominant from the very beginning of the match and held huge advantages in all areas of the game.
BU would end up more than doubling the Urban Knights' kill output (47-20) and hit a season-best .366 while doing it. The previous season-best in that category was .363 up at Academy of Art about one month ago.
Biola had seven aces, 52 digs and out-blocked ART U 11-3. As anticipated, Abigail Copeland led that effort with a hand on seven of those blocks.
"I loved Copeland's blocking and Raegan Tjepkema on offense," said Seltzer. "It was a good mix from our seniors and freshman tonight. A total team win."
The first game was competitive for a bit, with the two teams tied at seven early on as Biola worked through some issues with its rotation.
"I was pretty pumped up that the team picked me up after I entered the lineup in wrong in game one," said Seltzer.Â
Right after that 7-7 point, Tjepkema served up seven points in a row for BU to blow the match open. Housed within that stretch was a series of four service aces in five serve attempts. Tjepkema finished with five aces on the night, a new career-high.Â
"Raegan has a great serve. When it's pumping like that it's hard to stop," said Seltzer.
Five points would be as close as ART U could get over the remainder of that first set. Games two and three were never close as Biola streamed out to 8-2 starts in each set. The third was especially dominant, with the Eagles opening the frame up to a 15-5 effort.
Bekah Roth was the key piece in that set five performance. The junior could seemingly do no wrong from the right side. She had five of her team-high 13 in that game. For the match, Roth hit an even .500 to pace the effort for BU.
Right behind Roth in kills was Brewster. She had an excellent all-around game with her nine kills on a brilliant .615 clip, team-high 24 assists and five digs.
"I personally am so pumped up to be at home again and be able to play in front of our crowd again," said Brewster.
Sabrina Winslow had a similar impact for the Eagles, also helping out both offensively and defensively. She continued to her trend of contributing more on the block with five of those tonight and added four digs and five kills. With her effort tonight she topped 500 career digs (501) and 150 career blocks (154). She's also just 10 kills away from 800 in a Biola uniform.
Branch had an error-free night on offense, getting five kills on 12 swings and Hilde also had a great showing in limited time, recording four kills on 10 swings.
"I loved the leadership from Sabrina, Branch and Savannah," said Seltzer.
Â
The win brings Biola back to .500 at 9-9 overall. The Eagles improve to 6-4 in conference play and complete the season sweep of ART U. Biola hosts Holy Names on Saturday at 3 p.m. also looking to complete the sweep.
Â
