The Bruins volleyball team secured a spot in the final four as the team won both of their opening pool play matches on Wednesday over #6 Alice Lloyd College and #5 Toccoa Falls College in the NCCAA DII National Tournament. The Bruins will round out pool play on Thursday with matchup against #3 Dallas Christian College.

"It was a good first day for us in being able to win back to back matches," Bruins Head Coach Vickie Denny said. "Different players stepped up at different times for us throughout the day to help us at key times." 

In the first match of the day, the Bruins were paired with #6 Alice Lloyd College. The Bruins and Eagles met earlier in the season with the Bruins winning in straight sets on October 3. 

The Bruins came out strong in the opening set as Faith Rahn recorded a kill and an ace to help the Bruins jump out to a 6-2 lead. The Bruins continued to keep momentum as kills from Emma Riddle and Brooke Beaver helped the Bruins stretch their lead to 16-7. Although the Eagles answered back with a short run, the Bruins closed out the set well as Faith Rahn recorded an ace for a 25-12 win in the first set. 

In the second set, the Eagles took the early lead as kills from Brooklyn Cheek and Serria Dawson helped ALC lead 5-2. Rahn again provided the spark for the Bruins with a pair of aces while Brooke Beaver and Victoria Glaze made kills to help the Bruins go on a 7-1 run.

The Eagles kept the score close, but another 5-0 run by the Bruins pushed their lead to 18-12. After an error by the Bruins, the team responded by scoring seven straight points to end the set as Brittany Annand made a kill to win set two 25-13. 

With a sweep on their minds, the Bruins carried their momentum into set three as kills from Rahn and Beaver helped the Bruins build a 6-0 lead out of the gate. The Eagles were back on their heels and looked to slow the Bruins but the BJU attack did an excellent job with pinpoint kills. 

After Victoria Glaze made a kill, the Bruins led 14-4. Three straight aces by Timbre Cruz and a kill from Brooke Beaver stretched the lead to 19-6 and the Bruins never looked back as they closed out set three 25-9 to win the match 3-0. 

Victoria Glaze led the Bruins with 14 kills in the win while Brooke Beaver finished with 11. Brittany Annand had 27 assists for the Bruins while Faith Rahn finished with 5 aces. 

In their second match of the day, the Bruins would meet a familiar foe in the #5 seeded Toccoa Falls College Screaming Eagles. This would be the fifth time this season the Bruins and Screaming Eagles had faced off with the Bruins winning four of the five matches. TFC came into the match on the heels of a 3-0 loss to #3 Dallas Christian College earlier in the day. 

As the match began, the Screaming Eagles came out strong as kills from Kea Miles and Natalie Thompson helped build a 6-1 lead. The Bruins called a timeout to try to stop the momentum, and scored four of the next five points thanks to back to back kills from Kayla Oberstar. 

The Screaming Eagles continued to keep the upper hand thanks to errors by the Bruins and TFC finding holes in the BJU defense. After back to back errors by the Bruins and a kill from Kea Miles, the Screaming Eagles took a commanding 18-10 lead.

The Bruins refused to back down and came roaring back on a 10-3 run as they trailed TFC 21-20. The two teams battled back and forth, eventually drawing even at 24-24. The Bruins then committed a costly service error before Kea Miles ended the set with a kill to give TFC the 26-24 win set one. 

In the second set, the Bruins were determined to rebound knowing they had let the opening set slip away. The team came out strong as kills from Emma Riddle and Faith Rahn gave the Bruins a 4-1 lead. The Screaming Eagles battled back but this time it was the Bruins who maintained the upper hand with smart play as kills from Beaver and Rahn gave BJU a 14-8 lead and forced TFC to call timeout. 

The Screaming Eagles chipped away at the lead, but the Bruins were able to close in on a set win thanks to kills from Glaze and Beaver and errors by Toccoa Falls. The Bruins evened the set thanks to a ball handling error as the team won 25-13 in set two to even the match 1-1. 

In the third set, the Bruins kept up the momentum as they built an early 6-2 lead. The Bruins had found their rhythm and it showed as the defense fed the offense in allowing attackers to put down key kills. After back to back aces from Katelyn Landkrohn, the Bruins led 17-8, forcing the Screaming Eagles into another timeout. 

Out of the timeout, the Bruins scored four of the next five points and never looked back as a kill from Brooke Beaver have the Bruins a 25-15 win in set three to give the team a 2-1 lead in the match. 

The Bruin faithful were on their feet as their team looked to close out the Screaming Eagles in the fourth set. TFC wouldn't back down easily as the two teams traded points and the lead in the early stages. Eventually, the Screaming Eagles would gain a 14-11 lead thanks to a kill from Natalie Thompson. 

The Bruins came roaring back two kills from Glaze and an ace from Rahn helped the Bruins take a 18-16 advantage. The Screaming Eagles scored the next three points, forcing the Bruins to take a timeout. 

The timeout proved to be exactly what the Bruins needed as Victoria Glaze served seven straight points to help the Bruins finish off the Screaming Eagles 25-19 in the fourth set to win the match 3-1. 

"We knew Toccoa would come ready to play us and they did," Coach Denny said. "I thought they may have played their best match of the year against us especially the first part of the match. They came out swinging hard and took it to us the first set, but we were able to get more consistent in our blocking as the match went on and we were able to turn the momentum our way. Toccoa kept up a good fight and we got pushed which will just make us better for the rest of this tournament."

The Bruins had three players in double figures with kills as Brooke Beaver finished with 17, Faith Rahn 14, and Victoria Glaze 12 in the win. Glaze led the Bruins with 18 digs while Brooke Beaver, Kayla Oberstar, and Faith Rahn also finished with double-digit digs in the match. 

With the win, the Bruins secured their spot in the final four but will see how the final seeding will be determined based upon their final pool play match on Thursday. The Bruins will face #3 Dallas Christian College in the final pool play match at 1 p.m.

Tweet #WeAreBruins    Tweet #BruinsVolleyball