SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. --- Biola Volleyball's incredibly challenging preseason schedule continued on Friday evening as they drew No. 2 CSU San Bernardino, the reigning NCAA Division II runner-up, at their home court in game two of the NCAA Division II West Region Showcase.

The Eagles came into the matchup with a 6-2 all-time mark against the Coyotes and were looking to bounce back from last season's 3-1 loss at the hands of CSUSB, also coming in the West Region Showcase.

A flip of the prior year's result was not in the cards on this night though, with CSUSB using first, third and fourth set wins to hand Biola its fourth loss of the season in 3-1 (15-25; 25-23; 15-25; 14-25) fashion.

The two teams played close to sideout volleyball early on in the match with Biola seeming primed to compete with the CCAA favorites. Things were looking good as BU trailed just 8-7 and CSUSB's top players struggled to get going early.

Then, something shifted and the Coyotes were able to rattle off five of the next six points to extend to a more comfortable 13-8 advantage. Four of those five points came via kills from one player, Stephanie Doak. Their lead would stay right around there until another significant run of six consecutive points that opened up that first game to 21-11 and made it virtually impossible for the Eagles to come back and start off on the right foot.

Set two was a different story altogether, with BU using a six-point run of its own to open up a sizeable lead midway through the game. The Eagles seemed primed to take set two when they stormed out to a 15-9 advantage, aided mostly by some costly Coyote miscues. 

The home team would sniff its way all the way back to within three before a four-point run for Biola helped Seltzer's squad breathe a little bit once again, up 19-12. This time the run was powered by Biola's offense with Abby Brewster grabbing two kills and Bekah Roth another in the brief run.

Brewster would actually end the match tied as Biola's top attacker with eight kills on 22 swings. Raegan Tjepkema also had eight kills, except the freshman middle was more economical, only using 20 swings and hitting .350 for the match. Both players had two kills in the second game.

The Eagles' grip on game two nearly let up as they allowed CSUSB to rattle off five-straight late in the set to bring things back to within two at 21-19, but BU rebounded nicely with the help of freshman Madison Beebe. Beebe had two kill and one block to participate in three of BU's final four points in the 25-23 win.

Perhaps the most crucial of those four points was the one that didn't involve Beebe. That came when Saramasina Docktor landed a solo block on the Coyotes' hottest hitter, Stephanie Doak, to allow the Eagles a 22-19 lead.

The win in set two made it so that Biola is 6-for-6 this year in splitting sets one and two. Unfortunately for Seltzer's squad, the team is now 1-5 in those crucial game threes, making it really difficult to come out in the win column.

In this match, Biola could only manage 10 total kills in sets three and four (5 in each), going down without much further of a fight against the stacked CSUSB side. The Eagles' ended the match with just 33 kills, which is a season low. On the bright side, Biola also had its second-lowest amount of attack errors, which has been its biggest hindrance to this point in the season.

Savannah Hilde had a strong showing in her first date of competition this year. She ended with six kills and had just two errors, accounting to a .286 mark that was second only to Tjepkema. Beebe also had six kills in a solid effort after a challenging first match. Her biggest moment was a huge swing from the right side that ended set two in the favor of BU.

Both teams ended with seven blocks, with Biola's effort being led by Docktor. She had five stops in what was also her first match day of the 2019 season.

Sami Hover had her fourth 20+ dig effort of the 2019 campaign, leading all players on the floor with 21. Becca Branch reached double-digits as well with 13. Brewster rounded out her solid stat line with 10 digs to go with her eight kills and eight assists. It's looking like she's a prime candidate for a triple-double at some point this season. She also had a pair of blocks in match two of her collegiate career.

The loss dips Biola down to 2-4. They round out their preseason tomorrow with matches against Simon Fraser (4-3) and CSU San Marcos (5-3) at 1:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.