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Scoreboard

Dominique kirton with a dig
1
Biola BIO 7-6,4-2 PacWest
3
Winner Point Loma PL 9-3,4-0 PacWest
Biola BIO
7-6,4-2 PacWest
1
Final
3
Point Loma PL
9-3,4-0 PacWest
Winner
Set Scores
Team 1 2 3 4 F
Biola BIO 25 19 15 26 (1)
Point Loma PL 16 25 25 28 (3)

Game Recap: Volleyball |

Needed A Bit Mo'

Dominique Kirton's incredible fourth-set effort wasn't quite enough at PLNU.

SAN DIEGO, Calif. — The night began almost perfectly as Biola cruised to a massive first-set win inside Golden Gymnasium on Friday night. It did not end quite the same though as the Eagles came up short of snapping a four-match winning streak for the second-place Sea Lions of Point Loma.

Head Coach Aaron Seltzer's bunch hit .357 with 13 kills in the first game, and they earned a sideout on 11 of 17 PLNU serves en route to an easy 25-16 victory to open the match. 

Unfortunately for Biola, that would be the only set win of the night as their opponent strung together three in a row to notch their fifth-consecutive victory. PLNU won the second set 25-19 and then widened the gap with a 25-15 win in game three.

Sets two and three were not particularly close, but the final game of the night was the one that held absolute heartbreak.

Before BU dropped the third set 28-26, the Eagles had set point opportunities up 24-23, 25-24 and 26-25. The Eagles recorded a service error on two of those three set point chances, and ultimately saw Loma walk away with the victory on a big block assist by Grace Hicks and Claire Smith.

The serving line was a struggle for the Eagles again in this one. Biola managed just four service aces and hit 10 serves out of the field of play for errors. It was the sixth time this season that BU had 10 or more service errors. The Eagles are +9 in errors-to-aces overall this year (94-103).


After the dominant third set, PLNU opened up a 6-1 lead in the fourth as all the life was sucked from the Biola attack. The Sea Lions made it 8-2, but then Biola won 10 of the next 12 rallies to take its first lead in a long time at 12-10. 

Biola maintained its lead, albeit never leading by more than two points, for much of the rest of the set. Point Loma led 16-15 and 23-22 but was either behind or tied the rest of the time until Biola's streak of set points.

Biola serving error, a Grace Hicks kill and then that big PLNU block is what led to three-straight PLNU points to close out the match earlier than the visitors would've liked.

The final attack attempt of the night for Biola came from Dominique Kirton, who was blocked on that last swing. But without Kirton's incredible individual effort to that point, the Eagles would not have even had a thought of forcing a fifth set.

Kirton did not even check into the game during sets one and two, but the redshirt junior made a massive impact as Biola emptied its bag of tricks in sets three and four. 

Kirton had what will surely go down as the best single set for any student-athlete this season in the fourth game, accounting for 10 kills on 21 swings (.429) in the fourth. She had half of Biola's 20 total kills in that game, which is one where BU came back from far behind but could not quite pull it out in the end.

Friday's result is Point Loma's first win over Biola in the last two seasons. Biola had won three-straight against the Sea Lions and are 7-3 overall against PLNU since joining the PacWest Conference.

Things do not get easier for Biola moving forward. Next up for the Eagles is a matchup with the defending champions, Chaminade. The Silverswords (9-6, 4-0 PacWest) enter Monday night's matchup receiving votes in the AVCA national poll.
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