LA MIRADA, Calif. --- Biola Volleyball left it all out on the floor on Monday night, pushing Hawaii Hilo to five sets powered by a dominant third game. But, mistakes caught up to the Eagles and the second-place team in the conference did just enough to hand the hosts a disappointing 3-2 loss (27-25; 20-25; 25-13; 24-26; 16-14).
It was an incredibly close match for most of the night, keeping things interesting inside of Chase Gym. Three sets were decided by the minimum of two points, including set one and four going extra points to decide a victor. One of those extra pointers went in favor of the Eagles and the other fell to the Vulcans.
The momentum created by a narrow win in set four set Hilo off to a flying start to the fifth game and forced Head Coach Aaron Seltzer to burn two timeouts early on in the deciding game. The Vulcans had leads of 4-1 and 10-6 in the fifth set, forcing Biola to attack a bit more aggressively late in the fifth game.
Things were working for a while as Biola rattled off four in a row and five out of six points to set up a 13-13 tie and force Hawaii Hilo to re-imagine things late in the fifth set. Raegan Tjepkema stole the show during that late push with a kill and two service aces. Sabrina Winslow, making a triumphant return to the floor tonight, also added a heavy-handed kill to amp up the emotional intensity of the late run.
Unfortunately for the Eagles the comeback attempt would stall out right at the very end with UHH getting a pair of 50-50 points right out of there timeout to bring the match to a not so satisfying result.
Biola's play at the net is what kept them in this match throughout the night, despite facing another team with four well-reputed attackers. The Eagles ended the match with 14 blocks, but more than that were getting their hands on just about every attack by the Vulcans' pin hitters, making life a bit easier for the team's back row.
Tjepkema was at the center of everything all night long, including the blocking efforts. The President had a hand in 11 of Biola's blocks, tying
Abigail Copeland for the most blocks in one match this year.
The freshman also led the attack for BU, coming up with a season-best 18 kills on a lights-out .517 percentage. Her previous match-high was 14 set back in the first week of the season.
Biola actually registered more kills than its opponent tonight in a tight race. BU had 59 to Hilo's 58 and hit .200, which was markedly better than UHH's .132 number. The issue the Eagles ran up against was a bevy of unforced errors at bad times in the match.
The Eagles had 10 service errors in the match, which is a big number for a team that's been consistently proficient at the service line this season. It's just the second time since September 14 that Biola registered double-digit service errors.
The point in the match that's likely to replay in the minds of the Eagles is the end to the fourth set. Biola had just won 25-13 in game three to go up 2-1 in the match and had a 21-19 advantage in the fourth set playing at home.
Biola just needed to get four more points to end the match, but instead gave up back-to-back points on a ball hit out of play and a late net violation to give up a tie to Hilo. Tjepkema answered back with a kill, then the teams traded points as an Abby Brewster blast put Biola ahead 23-22 and on the precipice of a match point chance.
Instead Hawaii Hilo got a kill from its impressive freshman middle Emily Wade and hit a serve short to earn an ace and its first set point opportunity. Abigail Copeland answered the bell with one of just two kills on the match for her to tie it at 24 and force the extra points.
A Wade kill and Biola attack error would give the set to Hilo and eventually allow the Vulcans to get the win in five. The Eagles had a match-high nine attack errors in that fourth set.
Wade and PacWest Player of the Year candidate Bria Beale led Hilo's effort with 15 kills each.
Becca Branch had a solid offensive night for BU with 14 kills. She added seven digs and even added a block to help the effort. Tjepkema, Branch (.214) and Abby Brewster (7 kills, .217) were the only Eagles to hit over .200 on the night.
Sami Hover, recently crowned PacWest Defender of the Week, had another fantastic night facing the attack, coming up with 26 digs. She's now surpassed 500 for the season with five matches left to play. If she can get 90 over those last few matches it would make four consecutive years that Biola Volleyball has had a libero with 600+ digs.
The tough loss drops Biola back to 13-12 on the season and 10-7 in PacWest play. Hawaii Hilo momentarily takes over sole possession of second place in the conference with a 14-3 PacWest mark.
Next up for Biola is a home match against Hawaii Pacific (17-8, 13-4 PacWest) at 7 p.m. on Wednesday of this week. Hawaii Hilo lost in four sets at Point Loma Monday night.
