BOX SCORE

HILO, Hawai'i — On Saturday, the Dominican University of California volleyball team concluded its week-long, five-match road trip through the Aloha State with a second straight loss, 25-18, 25-14, 25-10 to the University of Hawai'i-Hilo, currently ranked eighth in the NCAA Division II West Region.

In the first set, sparked by Seluia "Ria" Falealili, the Lady Penguins (1-22/1-13) twice had the lead early. The Vulcans (14-6/10-5) built a 14-9 advantage when Dominican scored five consecutive points to tie the set at 14-14. Jessica Jones had a kill and a service ace to highlight that comeback. The Lady Penguins were as close as 16-15 in the set following a kill by freshman Samantha Rains.

The second set wasn't quite as competitive for the Lady Penguins. They had a 1-0 lead before the Vulcans reeled off eight straight points. In the last set, Dominican was tied with Hilo at 4-4 and trailing only 9-6 after a Sarah Bain kill.

Falealili led Dominican with seven kills and Jones and Skyler Moon contributed four apiece. Bain topped Dominican with 18 assists. Rains and Ashlee Sand had three blocks apiece. Katy Batchelder and LaShelle Rullan helped with eight and six digs, respectively.

Over the course of the roadtrip, the Lady Penguins started with a five-set victory at Chaminade and played some of their best volleyball of the season but it came at the expense of playing against its best competition of the year, as four matches were versus Pacific West Conference teams currently regionally ranked in the top eight in NCAA Division II West Region.

Dominican will close out the 2011 season at home this week with games on Wednesday, November 9 and Friday, November 11 against California Baptist University, the newest member this year in the 10-team PacWest. Both matches are set to begin at 7:00 p.m. at the Conlan Center and will be broadcast live online with audio at http://radio.dominican.edu and video at www.dominicanathletics.com/livevideo.