BOX SCORE

HILO, Hawai'i — Playing its third ranked opponent this week, the Dominican University of California volleyball team once again produced some of its most competitive effort  this season, yet ultimately bowed to the University of Hawai'i-Hilo 25-11, 25-21, 25-15 in a Pacific West Conference match on Friday night.

Sophomore Jessica Jones topped Dominican (1-21/1-12) with nine kills and eight digs while Hillary Hurley, led the Vulcans (13-6/9-5), who are the sixth ranked team in NCAA Division II's West Region this week, with 16.

In the first set, the Lady Penguins started slow yet rallied to trail only 13-7 with three straight points featuring a Skyler Moon kill.

Dominican got off to a sluggish start in the second set as well, falling behind 4-0 and 5-1. They came back again to pull within a point of the Vulcans at 7-6 on kills by Hannah Stocking and Ashlee Sand and, after trailing 21-14, made another comeback, netting four consecutive points starting with another Stocking kill.

The Vulcans expanded their lead to 23-18 but the Lady Penguins made one more push to overtake UHH. A Jones kill  helped Dominican get as close as 23-20.

In the final set, kills by Jones, Stocking, and Moon gave the Lady Penguins their first leads of the night, but UHH came back and completed the sweep.

Sand and Stocking combined for 11 kills for Dominican. Stocking also contributed seven digs while teammate Sarah Bain led the Lady Penguins with 24 assists and added six digs, the same number as Katy Batchelder.

The Lady Penguins play Hawai'i-Hilo again on Saturday night, the final game in their five-game, week-long swing through Hawai'i. First serve is set for 7:00 p.m. in Hawai'i.