THIS WEEK: vs. Alaska Anchorage (2-2); at No. 2 CSU San Bernardino (3-0); vs Simon Fraser (2-2); vs. RV CSU San Marcos (5-0) at NCAA Division II West Region Showcase, hosted by CSU San Bernardino (San Bernardino, Calif.).

MULTIMEDIA: Both live video and live stats will be provided by CSU San Bernardino for each of Biola's four matches for this opening week. See the links below.

BIOLA vs. ALASKA ANCHORAGE (2-2): Friday Sept. 13 at 2:30 p.m. \\ Live Stats \\ Live Video \\ Last Meeting: UAA wins 3-1
The Eagles' next opponent is one they are familiar with, as they played them on Sept. 6 at the Seawolf Invitational. The host of that Invitational, the University of Alaska Anchorage Seawolves, went 2-2 in tournament play this past weekend and will take on Biola at the NCAA Division II West Region Showcase hosted by CSU San Bernardino. Their two losses came against Regis University in five sets, and UC San Diego in four sets. Regis defeated Biola in four sets at the tournament, but the Eagles came out on top against UCSD in a five-set thriller. Senior outside hitter Sabrina Winslow and junior libero Sami Hover shone in their recent four-set loss to the Seawolves, as Winslow notched 14 kills and Hover recorded 29 digs. Last week's match was the first ever between the Eagles and the Seawolves and Biola will look to improve to 1-1 this weekend at the West Region Showcase on Friday.

BIOLA at NO. 2 CSU SAN BERNARDINO (3-0): Friday Sept. 13 at 7:30 p.m. \\ Live Stats \\ Live Video
The Eagles' second match on Friday pits them against the host CSU San Bernardino Coyotes. The Coyotes are 3-0 so far this year, and are led by junior outside hitter Alexis Cardoza. Through three games she leads the team in kills (41) and digs (45), an impressive feat for an outside hitter. The Eagles are 6-2 all time against the Coyotes, but CSU San Bernardino defeated the Eagles in four sets last year led by 21 kills from Cardoza. Winslow recorded seven kills while Hover shone with 27 digs. Biola Head Coach Aaron Seltzer attended CSUSB and played for the men's volleyball team there before it was dissolved. CSUSB is ranked No. 2 in the nation and are one of three teams to receive first-place votes in the most recent poll.

BIOLA vs. SIMON FRASER (2-2): Saturday Sept. 14 at 1:30 p.m. \\ Live Stats \\ Live Video
Biola continues play Saturday against the Simon Fraser University Clan, who hail from Burnaby, British Columbia in Canada. They are known as Canada's NCAA team. The Eagles have only played the Clan once, and they won that 1994 matchup 2-0. In play this year, Simon Fraser is 2-2 with all four of their matches being played at the Dixie State Classic. They've got no shared opponents with Biola this year, but one of the teams the beat at the DSU Invitational was the host, Dixie State. DSU is a former PacWest Conference team that Biola's got a 3-0 all-time record against.

BIOLA vs. RV CSU SAN MARCOS (5-0): Saturday Sept. 14 at 7:30 p.m. \\ Live Stats \\ Live Video
The Eagles' final match at the showcase comes against CSU San Marcos. The Cougars are 5-0 on the young season as they rolled past each opponent at their own Cougar Classic this past weekend. They are led by senior outside hitter Olivia Aguilar who has 50 kills so far this season. The Eagles hold a 4-0 record against the Cougars all-time, including a sweep in their most recent matchup in 2015. CSU San Marcos' strong start has propelled them to receiving votes in the most recent national poll. It's the first time this decade that CSUSM Volleyball has started 5-0. It's a great bounce back for a program that was just 6-23 as recent as 2016. 

NCAA DIVISION II WEST REGION SHOWCASE: This is Biola's third year playing in the NCAA Division II West Region Showcase. The tournament is designed to showcase the volleyball strength of the PacWest Conference, California Collegiate Athletics Association (CCAA) and the Greater Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC). The Eagles played at San Francisco state in 2017, at Azusa Pacific last year and now travel to another CCAA school, CSUSB. Biola is 5-3 all-time at the West Region Showcase. This year they have one repeat opponent from their run at last year's tournament. The Eagles and CSUSB Coyotes met on day one of the tournament last season, with CSUSB coming out on top with a 3-1 win.

ABOUT LAST WEEK: The opening week of the 2019 season had both ups and downs for this Biola Volleyball team. The Eagles stumbled a bit out of the gate, going 0-2 on opening day with both matches going from 1-1 ties to 3-1 losses for Biola. Day two was much more favorable at the Alaska Anchorage Seawolf invitational. Seeing Biola come back from down 2-1 to defeat UC San Diego in five thrilling sets. The conclusion of set four against the Tritons had to be the highlight of the tournament for BU as the team showed grit by succeeding on chance number five after failing to convert on four set point opportunities and allowing UCSD to tie the game at 24-24. BU smoked UCSD in the fifth set and will look forward to a rematch with UAA this coming week. UAA was one of the two teams to deal Biola a loss on opening day. The Seawolves went 2-2 at that tournament just like Biola, with their losses coming to Regis and UCSD. Sabrina Winslow (55), Bekah Roth (38) and Raegan Tjepkema (36) were Biola's top-3 attackers for the week. Vanessa Garcia stole the show with 127 assists and three asst.-dig double-doubles. All while Sami Hover was the brightest light, making the all-tournament team and earning PacWest Defender of the Week with 90 digs. 

SHE'S A RAEGULAR: Raegan Tjepkema definitely opened some eyes during the first week of her collegiate career. The 6-foot-3-inch middle blocker from Ladera Ranch was stellar throughout the weekend, finishing with her strongest effort by leading the team with 14 kills in its 3-1 win over Concord (W.V.) on Saturday night. She had at least six kills in all four matches to equate for 36 total (third on the team). Not only that, but the newcomer led the team with a .289 hitting percentage, which included two games of a .400 or better attacking clip. She was equally as effective at the net, garnering a team-best 15 total blocks while not committing a single net violation in the Eagles' two wins. Tjepkema is just one of several promising freshmen sure to get a lot of playing time on the 2019 roster. It makes it exciting to find out who will step up this weekend in San Bernardino.

SHE'S PRACTICALLY A SHOVEL: This past weekend Sami Hover entered some good company by crossing the 1,000 dig threshold. She began the year with 999 and added 90 in 17 sets at the UAA tournament (5.3/set) to get up to 1,089 for the year. Biola's libero's (Hover included) have averaged 572 digs-per-season since 2010. If Hover can average that this season and during her senior year in 2020, she's on pace for 2,143 digs in her career. That would beat the current program record of 2,097. Last season, in her first year as full-time libero, Hover had 604 digs. She's got 18 more kills in the first four matches of 2019 than she had in the first four matches of 2018. Looks promising!

THE 1,000 CLUB (AGAIN): Hover was not the only player to surpass 1,000 of any given statistic during play last weekend. Junior setter Vanessa Garcia also climbed over 1,000 career assists. She came into the week with 968 and averaged 32 assists-per-match to get herself all the way up to 1,095 for her career. She split time evenly with Marissa Price in the season opener before being on the floor herself for most of the three remaining matches. It will be interesting to see what Seltzer chooses to do with his cadre of setters moving forward this season. Garcia also landed on exactly 50 career aces with 10 this past weekend. She had an incredible six-ace match against Concord in the closing match of the tournament.

MISS WRIGHT: This week Biola hosts Seattle Pacific for a scrimmage at 8 a.m. on Tuesday. Seattle Pacific is led by Head Coach Abbie Wright. Wright coached at Biola under Seltzer from 2013-16 before taking the SPU job. Prior to her time as a coach at Biola she spent four years as a setter for BU and has her name littered all over the record book. She's got the Falcons off to a 1-3 start to 2019 and has a 27-32 all-time record in her 2+ season as a head coach.

POLL POSITION: The PacWest teams need a good showing at this weekend's crossover, otherwise it's going to be real tough to get teams to the regional and national tournament this year. Coming into week two of the season the PacWest has zero nationally ranked teams with just Chaminade and APU among the 20 institutions "receiving votes." By way of comparison - the CCAA has two ranked teams (#2/#23) and two more receiving votes and the GNAC also has two ranked teams (#3/#25). Only the top-8 teams in each region qualify for NCAA postseason. Wins against other in-region teams during the preseason goes a long way for the chances of the conference being well represented. The PacWest will need to improve on 2018's showings where teams were just a combined 16-32.

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.

A WHOLE NEW WORLD: The 2019 Biola Volleyball roster has an entirely different look than the NCCAA Championship-winning 2018 squad. Biola had key departures at almost every position and brought in its largest recruiting class in years. The most noticeable differences will be the missing 2018 PacWest Player of the Year Sierra Bauder, the do-it-all wunderkind Christina DenBoer, the 1,000+ kill right side Karly Dantuma and three-year starting setter Brinley Beresford. BUT Biola also has a strong returning base with senior leaders Sabrina Winslow and Kaitlin O'Brien and the always sharp Sami Hover back to anchor the back row. Aside from those three Biola returns five other letterwinners and will get a first-look at 2018 redshirt setters Abby Brewster and Marissa Price. The incoming class features eight incoming freshmen and a returning senior in Becca Branch who's back to the game after taking four seasons off. Three of those eight freshmen will redshirt. Two of the eight are younger siblings of former Biola Volleyball All-Americans. Right-side hitter Jillian Gallarda is the younger sister of standout setter and current lead assistant coach Gracee Teague ('13). Redshirt outside hitter Dominique Kirton is the younger sister of two-sports All-American Joclyn Kirton ('17). The five freshmen who will see time on the floor in 2019 are a mix of one outside hitter, one right side and three really tall middles. 

UPCOMING MILESTONES:
Becca Branch - 400 assists (331)
Vanessa Garcia - 1,500 assists (1,095)
Vanessa Garcia - 100 service aces (50)
Vanessa Garcia - 500 digs (333)
Savannah Hilde - 300 kills (229)
Savannah Hilde - 50 matches (44)
Sami Hover - 100 matches (75)
Sami Hover - 75 service aces (57)
Sami Hover - 1,500 digs (1,089) (school record: 2,097)
Kaitlin O'Brien - 150 assists (145)
Kaitlin O'Brien - 150 service aces (127) (school record: 182)
Bekah Roth - 100 matches (74)
Bekah Roth - 500 kills (415)
Bekah Roth - 100 service aces (74)
Bekah Roth - 300 total blocks (244)
Sabrina Winslow - 800 kills (679)
Sabrina Winslow - 50 service aces (38)
Sabrina Winslow - 500 digs (428)
Sabrina Winslow - 150 blocks (119)

THE ROAD TO 1,100: Biola Volleyball is 1,078-444 (.708) all-time. The Eagles have a chance to notch win number 1,100 this season with a solid showing. Biola needs 24 wins to do it and has averaged 27 wins-per-year in Head Coach Aaron Seltzer's 17-year tenure. A good season will also put Seltzer within a handful of wins of 500 when the season is all done. He enters 2019 with an all-time coaching mark of 462-139 (.768).

NEW STAFF: Seltzer's coaching staff has doubled from its 2018 size. He and lead assistant Gracee Teague did it along in 2018 but add Alex Leja and Sierra Bauder for 2019. Bauder, of course, was on the team last season and won conference player of the year. Leja is no stranger to Biola, having been groomed as a player and assistant coach at Vanguard University from 2009-15 before serving as head coach at NCAA Division III Alma College from 2016-18. 

BIRD STREAK COUNTER: Biola Volleyball has won 37 consecutive matches against teams with a bird mascot. The Eagles have not lost to another bird species (or fictional bird species) since the 2014 season. Biola enters the 2019 season with eight bird matchups on tap, all in PacWest Conference play. The first matchup is the PacWest opener on the road at Holy Names on Sept. 20. The toughest test seems to be Concordia Irvine, which won the PacWest Championship in 2016 and is on its way back towards the top after two tough years in '17 and '18. CUI is also the last bird-related team to have a win over Biola (9/20/14).

NEXT WEEK: at Holy Names (1-0) - Friday September 20 at 6 p.m.; at Academy of Art (0-3) - Saturday September 21 at 3 p.m. (PacWest Conference play begins)