OAKLAND, Calif. --- Biola Volleyball got back in the win column on Friday night as it opened its 2019 PacWest Conference schedule with a 3-1 (25-20; 16-25; 25-20; 25-22) win over the Holy Names Hawks. 

The Eagles are now 3-0 all-time in their opening conference contests during the PacWest era. This is the second time in that three-year stretch the team's had to begin the year on the road.

Friday's match is part of a whirlwind Northern California road trip that sees BU fly up to the Bay Area Friday morning, play HNU Friday night, play Academy of Art (3-5) on Saturday in the early-afternoon before flying back down south Saturday night. 

Thankfully for Head Coach Aaron Seltzer's team they got the job done on Friday night to ensure at the very least a .500 record for the trip. Holy Names did not go down easily, however, taking a set off BU for the first time since the teams' first-ever meeting back in 2000.

The Eagles took charge of the match in the opening frame, winning the first set for just the third time this season  (3-6). Biola built an 8-1 lead right out of the gate to get comfortable right away in Tobin Gymnasium. 

Seven points is the largest advantage Biola would have all night, experiencing that buffer until as late as 14-7 in the first set. Then, a five-point run by HNU tightened things to 14-12 and had BU beginning to sweat just a bit. 

Biola was able to spread the ball around enough throughout the rest of that game to keep the offense effective and hold HNU just enough at bay to escape with the 25-20 win. 

Holding tough in that first frame became instantly very important as the Eagles game out flat in game two and stumbled to a 25-16 set loss where BU managed to to record just six kills and hit nearly -.200.

Games three and four were just as competitive as the first one turned out to be, with the Hawks as close as one to two points after the 20-point mark in both games. Biola surrendered four of five rallies to the home team in the fourth set to see their lead cut down to 23-22 before BU got a kill from Sabrina Winslow and saw a HNU attack sail out of bounds to lock down the match-clinching 25-22 win.

Winslow led Biola in kills for this sixth time this season, recording 12 on 26 swings (.269). She's the only Eagle to top double-digits in the kill category on a night when the team averaged just over 11 kills-per-set. Bekah Roth and freshman Raegan Tjepkema both came up with eight kills to have the second-best tallies for BU. Tjepkema hit at least .200 for the fifth time this year.

Two critical areas were weak for Biola in this one: serve-receive and blocking. The Eagles were aced eight times (all in the first three sets) and only managed four aces of their own. At least BU limited the damage when they had serve, only hitting two serves out. Holy Names put up 12 blocks and held the Eagles to just five. The Hawks were led by two players with seven blocks each. Saramasina Docktor led Biola with three.

Sami Hover was stellar in the back, recording the 19th 20+ dig performance of her career. Her 23-dig night is the fifth time this year that she's crossed the 20-dig plateau. Becca Branch also played a key role in defense with a season-high 17 digs.

The win helps Biola inch closer to .500 at 4-5 overall. As mentioned above it gets BU off to an unblemished start to conference play at 1-0. HNU drops to 1-5 overall and 0-1 in PacWest.

The Eagles have a compelling matchup on Saturday as they face a 3-5 Academy of Art team that beat Concordia Irvine in four sets on Friday night to also start 1-0 in PacWest play. The Urban Knights have already tripled their win total from 2018 (1-29). Concordia is a team that was off to a 6-2 start.

BU and ART U have one shared opponent this season: UC San Diego (BU win 3-2/ART U loss 3-2).