Box Score LA MIRADA, Calif. — Biola Women's Water Polo dug deep in another closely-contested battle against a Western Water Polo Association foe. This time, Biola returned home to SPLASH! La Mirada Regional Aquatic Center to host CSU Monterey Bay for the two teams' second meeting in eight days.

Biola got the best of the visiting Otters in what ended up as a one-goal contest despite Biola really having firm control of the match throughout. The Eagles would win 8-7 to make it back-to-back one-goal wins against the Otters.

The two teams' battle up in Seaside a week ago was eerily similar, ending in a 10-9 victory for BU. It was a well-earned bounce back for this Biola team after having to endure a challenging sudden death overtime loss to La Verne their last time out.

After CSUMB scored the first goal of the game Biola scored five tallies in a row to end the first half up 5-1 over the Otters. Keeping with the team-effort theme as of late all five of those first Biola goals came from a different Biola Eagle.

Lizzy Birch scored the final of those goals with about two minutes to go before halftime. 

CSU Monterey Bay made a surge right out of the halftime break, scoring the first two goals of the third period on back-to-back offensive possessions. This brought the game to 5-3 and was when the anxiety began to heighten just a bit on the Biola bench.

Thankfully for Biola, Maria Roldan Gonzalez and Veralie Naranjo found back-to-back scores to BU to open it back up to 7-3 late in the third quarter. 

The Otters scored with 19 seconds left in the third period and then Veralie Naranjo was awarded a second exclusion with one second left in the frame and all of a sudden momentum was again in CSUMB's favor as they went into period four up a player and down just two goals.

Fortunately for BU, the only sprint of the day to go in their favor was the fourth-quarter sprint so Naranjo immediately rejoined the action and no harm was done.

Veralie would actually score the first goal of the fourth as well to secure a hat trick for herself. She also had two assists in a productive offensive day. 

The Otters' Olivia Certis was the next one to score at the 4:38 mark in the fourth to make it an 8-6 ballgame. Certis was the leading scorer for the guests, also compiling three goals.

Biola  would not score again in the contest, and at the 2:48 mark in the fourth period Naranjo was excluded for a third time to cost Biola its most productive player for the homeward stretch. The Eagles were actually playing without two of their top pieces since Rachel Spadt was excluded three times before the end of the third period.

A goal from CSUSB made it 8-7 with 2:27 left to play, but Damaris Kientz and the Eagles would just manage to ride it out for those final 147 seconds to clinch a good win.

Kientz had six saves and three huge steals in another win for her. She's leading the team with four wins this year. Roldan Gonzalez ended the game as the second-leading point-getter for BU as the managed a goal and three assists to go with a solid defense effort of four steals.

The win allows Biola to improve its overall record to 9-14 with three regular season matches remaining in this historic inaugural season. The Eagles host No. 21 Brown University (14-9) in a neutral site match on Thursday at the Brenda Villa Aquatic Center in Commerce. The match begins at 7:30 p.m.