Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 ROHNERT PARK, Calif. — The Dominican University of California women's volleyball team played arguably its best volleyball of the young season on Saturday in day two of the Seawolf Spike hosted by Sonoma State. Unfortunately for the Lady Penguins, the result was a pair of losses, 3-2 to Stanislaus State and 3-0 to No. 25 UC San Diego.

After struggling at preventing runs, Dominican (1-6) didn't allow more than any 5-0 runs on Saturday against either CCAA team. In fact, Dominican used a 7-0 run to take a lead and finished with a 6-2 run against the Warriors (3-4) to take set one 25-15. Dominican kept set two close but never held a lead and one of those 5-0 leads that have plagued Dominican gave the Warriors the 25-18 decision and evened the match at 1-1.

Dominican trailed by as many as five in set three but rallied back with an 8-1 run to take set three 25-21 and the lead back. Five straight Warriors points forced Dominican to play out of an 8-2 deficit. A kill by Ashlee Sand, a Samantha Rains service ace, and three Warriors attack errors pulled the Lady Penguins within a point. Hannah Stocking-Siagkris added one of her team-high 15 kills and and Sand tied it up at 21-21 with a kill of her own. An ace by Sand kept it knotted at 23-23 but the Warriors capitalized on a service error and snatched the set when Kendal Munoz snuck a service ace of her own past freshman Valerie Larsen.

With the deciding set tied at 11-11, Dominican ran out of steam. A pair of Dominican attack errors and kills from Eva Chafeh, who posted a match-high 16 kills, and Jennifer Marsh gave Stanislaus the win.

After accumulating 10 services aces in the first match, Dominican used eight service aces to keep things close with the nationally-ranked Tritons (5-3), who Dominican Head Coach Gayle Stammer credited as being, "a team that [normally] doesn't let anything hit the floor."

After taking an early 2-0 lead in set one, UC San Diego took a two-point lead of its own and used a 6-1 run to take a 21-15 lead. Freshman Danielle Dahle closed it out for the Tritons, 25-19, with one of her 14 kills. Dominican took the first point of the second set but trailed the rest of the frame and fell 25-18.

The third set was the closest of the day and saw the lead change four times and the scored tied eight times. UC San Diego looked in line to run away with things after building a 10-5 lead. The Lady Penguins chipped away though, finally tying the set at 21-21 on a Jessica Jones kill. Another Jones kill put Dominican in front 22-21 and a Jade Santos service ace put Dominican on the cusp of taking the set with a 24-22 lead. A pair of Dahle kills and a Brittany Lombardi service ace tied it back at 25-25 and kills by Amber Hawthorne and Lizzy Andrews gave UC San Diego the 27-25 victory and the match.

Jones and Rains provided most of the offense with 14 and eight kills, respectively, but it was hard to keep pace with the hard-hitting Tritons, who posted a .350 attack percentage for the match, led by 16 from redshirt freshman Rachel Gam.

Junior Kelsey Lardner dished out 20 assists against the Warriors and had 17 assists against the Tritons. Senior Katy Batchelder finished with 13 digs on the day. Sand had a strong day at the net with 13 kills, a block solo, and five block assists. She also had three service aces against the Warriors. Jones finished a strong weekend with 22 kills on the day and Rains finished her day with 16 kills.

"We knew that the tournament would be tough competition, especially with a number of nationally ranked teams here," said Stammer. "The record may not reflect it but this has really prepared us for conference. We forced teams to beat us instead of beating ourselves."

Dominican travels to Notre Dame de Namur on Thursday, Sept. 13, to begin Pacific West Conference play. First serve is slated for 7:00 p.m. in Belmont.

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