Box Score SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — The Dominican University of California women's volleyball team rallied back from a 2-1 deficit to force a fifth set but eventually fell 3-2 (25-19, 23-25, 25-19, 20-25, 15-9) to visiting Point Loma Nazarene University on Thursday evening in both teams' Pacific West Conference opener.

Dominican (1-8/0-1) dropped a tough first set. Point Loma (7-3/1-0) came out swinging and tallied 18 kills on .333 hitting in the first set. The Penguins fended off a pair of three-point runs and battled back to even the match in set two with a close-fought 25-23 decision. Dominican dropped the first point of set three, then built an 8-3 lead on strong hitting from Jessica Jones, Hannah Stocking-Siagkris, and Amanda Wasko. The Penguins placed 14 kills in the set and Stocking-Siagrkis gave Dominican a 2-1 lead with a kill to take the set.

Point Loma jumped out to a 3-0 lead, then built it to 7-1 in set four. Dominican pulled within a point, 19-18, on a Stocking-Siagkris service ace but the Sea Lions didn't relinquish the lead and instead responded with four straight points.

A Dominican attack error followed by five Point Loma kills forced Dominican to play defensive facing a 6-0 deficit. The Penguins pulled back within three but couldn't recover, as Point Loma went on to take set and match.

"With all due respect to Point Loma, they came out and served tougher in set five than they did the entire match. They picked it up a notch at the end," said Head Coach Gayle Stammer. "We were put on the defensive but we didn't get outworked in our gym. I've told the girls that they should never be outworked and we had some great individual performances, especially from Wasko and Stocking."

Heather Leavitt led all players with 19 kills and 23 digs for the Sea Lions. Teammate Alyssa Dwyer added 16 kills.

Stocking-Siagkris led the Penguins with 17 kills, her most since a career-high 21 last August 31 versus Humboldt State. Jones added 11 and Wasko had eight kills. Jones, who had a pair of aces, also led the Penguins with 15 digs, though it was a team effort defensively as half a dozen players had 10 or more digs. Megan Callen had a block solo and four block assists.

Stammer also pointed to the return of setter Kelsey Lardner and strong freshmen play, particularly Madeline Powelson's serve receive passing and Amanda Lee's play at libero, as takeaways headed to the next match.

That next match is on Saturday, Sept. 21 when Dominican welcomes California Baptist University to the Igloo. First serve is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. with live coverage at dominicanathletics.com/live.