SANTA CLARITA, Calif. – After three sets (17-25, 22-25, 14-25), The Master’s College volleyball team fell to Biola University, the NAIA’s top-ranked team, Tuesday night at Bross Court.

With the loss, the Lady Mustangs’ 2015 record moves to 18-9 and 9-4 in GSAC play. Notably, Tuesday’s results, coupled with Vanguard University beating Westmont College, puts TMC in fourth-place in the GSAC’s standings.

The Lady Mustangs kept things close in set one by tying the score on three separate occasions (1-1, 2-2-, 7-7). However, Biola never looked back en rout to its 25-17 set one victory after unlocking the frame’s last tie with a kill from Lauren Hoenecke.

Aurbey Bekendam (Orland, CA) highlighted the evening’s second set by tying the game at 21-21. Unfortunately, a pair of BU kills alongside three costly TMC errors ended the set with a 25-22 victory for the Eagles.

Finally, set three mirrored game one as the Lady Mustangs kept things close early on, but fell to a relentless Eagle attack that manifested with a 25-14 final score.

Bekendam finished the evening by posting 27 assists, Emily Clark (Lake Forest, CA) led TMC’s defensive efforts with 12 digs, while Maryah Richberg (Santa Clarita, CA) claimed nine kills and a .583 attack percentage. Collectively, TMC posted 37 kills, 34 assists, and 29 digs.

“Our game plan was to attack Biola’s outside hitters, and we did that well, just not consistently,” commented TMC head coach Allan Vince. “Biola passed exceptionally well tonight and was able to run their full offense more than half the time. It was going to take errorless volleyball on our part to have the chance to win against them, but we put ourselves in hard situations with our passing, which made us more predictable and ultimately cost us scoring opportunities. I am very proud of how our girls played. We stayed together despite all the different circumstances happening within our team, and promised each other that we were going to play to honor Christ tonight, and I think we did.”

Looking forward, the Lady Mustangs now prepare for their match against the seventh-ranked Vanguard Lions (18-4, 11-0) on Saturday in Costa Mesa.  First serve is set for 7:00 p.m.