LA MIRADA, Calif. --- Finally! This is the week Biola Volleyball begins its eight-match home stand to end the 2019 season. The Eagles have been road warriors all season long and now get time to enjoy the peace of not having to travel. BU hosts two of the three "Pacific" schools in the conference with Fresno Pacific at home Friday and rivals Azusa Pacific home on Saturday night.

THIS WEEK: vs Fresno Pacific (4-20, 3-12 PacWest) - Friday Nov. 8 at 7 p.m.; vs Azusa Pacific (18-4; 12-2 PacWest) - Saturday Nov. 9 at 7 p.m.

MULTIMEDIA: Biola offers free live video of all home events at portal.stretchinternet.com/biola. Live statistics will be available at that link and also at https://athletics.biola.edu/sidearmstats/wvball/summary.

BIOLA VS FRESNO PACIFIC (4-20; 3-12 PacWest): Friday, Nov. 8 at 7 p.m. \\ Live Stats \\ Live Video \\ LAST MEETING: Biola defeated FPU, 3-0
Needing a win to get its confidence fully back in front of Saturday's major Cornerstone Cup matchup against Azusa Pacific, Biola will have a go at another old Golden State Athletic Conference rival and former NAIA powerhouse, Fresno Pacific. The Eagles swept the Sunbirds back at the start of PacWest Conference play, 25-18; 25-10; 25-19. Sabrina Winslow (10) and the Eagles' fantastic freshmen middle blockers (Raegan Tjepkema - 9; Abigail Copeland - 7) led the effort that night, while the Eagles out-blocked FPU 10-4. No Sunbird had more than six kills and the team hit just .000 for the night. Since then, FPU has managed a 2-10 overall record, including a 3-2 win over Holy Names in their last outing. Seven of those 10 losses were 3-0 sweeps. The Sunbirds host Azusa Pacific on Wednesday night before visiting Biola on Friday. This season the FPU attack has been led by three freshmen, each averaging over 2.0 kills-per-set. Makena Ogas is the top of the mountain for Fresno Pacific with 231 total kills (2.72 kills/set). Including this season's results, Biola is 29-46 all-time against FPU.

BIOLA VS AZUSA PACIFIC (18-4; 12-2 PacWest): Saturday, Nov. 9 at 7 p.m. \\ Live Stats \\ Live Video \\ LAST MEETING: APU defeated Biola, 3-1
Biola is eager for another shot at the Cougars. Last time these two teams met Azusa Pacific had yet to lose a PacWest Conference match. Biola worked its way into the match, winning the second set by a solid margin. However, the Eagles' lacked the offensive firepower down the stretch to keep in it. The Eagles' have seen marked improvements from Tjepkema, Copeland and Bekah Roth since then and Sabrina Winslow has been firing on all cylinders as of late, so this matchup could have a different look and feel. The Eagles will have an especially good chance to nab a win if they come anywhere near its 17-block effort from last time against APU. Copeland led that effort with an eight-block match. It helped her to PacWest Defensive Player of the Week honors. The Cougars are 7-2 since the last meeting. Their two losses came to Point Loma (PLNU wins 3-0) and at Hawaii Hilo (UHH wins 3-2). APU has won two in a row and will likely be riding a three-match streak headed into this one, facing Fresno Pacific on Wednesday night. The Cougars' attack has been led this season by freshman Annaka Jorgenson and senior middle blocker Julianne Miller.  This season Miller became the PacWest Conference's all-time leader in blocks. She's averaging about 0.9 blocks-per-set in 2019. Including this season's results, Biola is 51-34 all-time against APU. Saturday's matchup will be worth a crucial five Cornerstone Cup points. Azusa Pacific, with wins in both soccer matches this week, just took a 25-20 lead in the race for the cup. They've won it the last two seasons and Biola is eager to get back on top.

ABOUT LAST WEEK: Biola had just one match last week. It was a big one as the Eagles made the trek down the 5-freeway to local rivals Concordia Irvine looking to avoid a season sweep at the hands of CUI. Biola took two of the first three sets but fell flat in games four and five to suffer a five-set upset loss at the hands of Concordia. It's the second time this season that CUI's been able to upend BU, despite having a worse win-loss record and ranking lower in most stat categories. It must be a matchup thing, because CUI is 0-2 against Academy of Art, which is the team Biola's had its two best efforts of the entire season against. Either way, this team will be hungry to throw that one away and move on. 

TOPS IN THE PACWEST: Abigail Copeland continues to lead the conference in blocks. She's up to 85 total blocks in her freshman season. Copeland's total block number is third in the league, but she's tops in blocks-per-set with 1.23. That's 19th-best in all of NCAA Division II. Concordia's Hannah Tostado and Hawaii Hilo's Emily Wade are the only other players in the league with more than one kill-per-set on average.

WILD WRAPAROUND: This next two weeks will be very difficult for Biola. The team has five matches in an eight-day span, beginning with Friday's matchup against FPU. The Eagles' last four opponents have a combined record of 71-21 (.772) this season. APU and the three Hawaii schools are currently 1-4 in the conference and should be top-10 in the region when the first official regional rankings come out this week. They have a combined 50-10 (.833) PacWest Conference record.

IT'S GO TIME: The 2019 Biola Volleyball season has added significance in that it's the Eagles' first as full members in NCAA Division II. Back on July 12 the Biola campus received a call from the NCAA Division II Membership Committee notifying BU of its successful completion of the membership transition process. The change became official as of September 1 and now Biola is officially eligible for NCAA postseason play, national and regional rankings and official NCAA postseason honors for the first time. With no conference tournament, the Eagles will have to finish in the top-8 in the NCAA Division II West Region rankings to be able to get that first taste of NCAA postseason play.

UPCOMING MILESTONES:
Becca Branch - 400 digs (312)
Vanessa Garcia - 1,500 assists (1,426)
Vanessa Garcia - 100 service aces (60) 
Vanessa Garcia - 500 digs (447)
Savannah Hilde - 300 kills (249)
Sami Hover - 100 matches (93)
Sami Hover - 75 service aces (69)
Sami Hover - 1,500 digs (1,433) (school record: 2,097)
Kaitlin O'Brien - 150 assists (147)
Kaitlin O'Brien - 150 service aces (134) (school record: 182)
Bekah Roth - 100 matches (92)
Bekah Roth - 600 kills (569)
Bekah Roth - 100 service aces (75)
Bekah Roth - 300 total blocks (285)
Sabrina Winslow - 900 kills (829)
Sabrina Winslow - 50 service aces (40)
Sabrina Winslow - 500 digs (518)
Sabrina Winslow - 150 blocks (165)

THE ROAD TO 1,100: Biola Volleyball is 1,088-452 (.707) all-time. Biola's averaged 27 wins-per-year in Head Coach Aaron Seltzer's 17-year tenure. This year Biola is on pace for a 15-win season. A good season will put Seltzer within striking distance of 500 when the season is all done. He entered 2019 with an all-time coaching mark of 462-139 (.768).

NEXT WEEK: vs Hawaii Hilo (18-6, 13-3 PacWest) - Monday, Nov. 11 at 7 p.m.; vs Hawaii Pacific (16-7, 12-3 PacWest) - Wednesday, Nov. 13 at 7 p.m.; vs Chaminade (19-4, 13-2 PacWest) - Saturday, Nov. 16 at 11 a.m.