Box Score SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — The red-hot Dominican University of California women's volleyball team started fast on Friday night but Chaminade Univeristy cooled them off, handing the Lady Penguins a disappointing 25-20, 18-25, 23-25, 26-24, 3-15 defeat before the largest crowd of the season.
The loss snapped a four-match Dominican winning streak – its largest in five years – and left the Lady Penguins (5-7/3-1) with a sinking feeling following an incredible comeback. They had forced a fifth and decisive set by overcoming double match point in the fourth set before the Silverswords (5-8/2-3) dominated the last set.
“That was fun actually. It's fun when you can manipulate a [final] game like that,” said Dominican Head Coach
Gayle Stammer. “It lifted our spirit out there and I really felt we had a chance to win in Game 5 but they served tough. Chaminade played very well and we didn't have our best night and it happens. We've got to put that behind us.”
The loss took the luster off a possible Pacific West Conference first-place showdown tonight versus nationally-ranked Fresno Pacific (4-0, 12-1) in the Conlan Center. Fresno Pacific is 25th in this week's NCAA Division II poll.
Dominican, predicted to finish last this season according to a PacWest coaches' preseason poll, pushed Chaminade to the limit.
Hannah Stocking-Siagkris,
Samantha Rains, and
Jessica Jones led the Penguins with 12, 11 and 10 kills, respectively, while teammate
Kelsey Lardner had a match-high 37 assists and freshman
Sari Kwan contributed 21 digs. Stocking-Siagkris also had 18 digs.
In a tightly-contest opening set, the Lady Penguins played from behind, but never trailed by more than three points. The comeback started with a kill by Stocking-Siagkris, who also had a team-best eight digs in the opening set, followed by another kill by freshman
Laura Price, who had a team-high five kills in the first set in the first start of her Dominican career. The last kill by Price tied the set at 18-18 then Rains sparked Dominican with a block and a kill that regained the lead. A Jones' kill off a crosscourt pass from Lardner – one of her 11 assists in the game – helped the Lady Penguins finished off the first-set win by scoring the final five points.
In the second set, Lardner propelled the Penguins to a quick 2-0 advantage with an ace, her team-leading 13th for Dominican, which topped the PacWest in service aces (1.89 per set) coming into the contest. The Silverswords prevailed, however, despite four more kills by Price and excellent digs by Kwan and fellow freshman
Valerie Larsen. Kwan is the team leader and ninth in the PacWest with 3.61 per set.
The Penguins three times had a four-point lead in the third set, before Chaminade came back to grab a 22-19 advantage. But Dominican came out of a timeout and forced the Silverswords to call their own timeout after a Jones kill and Kwan ace. Kwan also had five digs in the set and Lardner had six digs and 11 assists, yet the visitors regrouped to get the win.
Dominican rallied in the fourth set from a four-point deficit, scoring six points in a row at one point to seize an 18-15 lead with a surge that began and ended with a Jones' kill. 19-16 after Jones block. But they trailed 24-22 and were down to their last point. A Stocking-Siagkris tied the score and the Lady Penguins wound up scoring the last four points of the set. She and Rains combined for nine kills in the fourth set and Kwan and Lardner teamed for 11 digs.
“Every match is going to be a battle in this league,” said Stammer. “If any team has an off night it could mean a [upset] win for someone else.”
After Saturday night's home game with Fresno Pacific University, the Lady Penguins end a six-game homestand on Thursday by hosting Holy Names in a 7 p.m. start in Conlan Center before embarking on a three-game road trip.
