SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — The Dominican University of California women's soccer team held on for a 2-1 Pacific West Conference victory over visiting UH Hilo on Saturday, the team's Senior Day.

A pregame ceremony honored Dominican's seven seniors – Kendra Corsberg, Megan Hanson, McKenna Kimball, Sara Pimentel, Jessica Ramirez, Rocky "Raquel" Ramos, and Kaila Wakida. Kimball, who sustained a season-ending knee injury on Oct. 18 participated in the coin toss with her fellow co-captains Corsberg and Hanson. Ramos, who has missed the larger part of the season after injuring her shoulder in the opening minutes of the season, took the field one final time and was given a warm round of applause when redshirt freshman Ashley Lentz subbed in for her in the opening minute.

While it was the seniors' day, it was the freshmen who got the offense going for the Penguins. In the 31st minute, Sami Clausen crossed a ball from the left side to Mariah Meza, who finished wiht a right-footded shot to the bottom right of goal that put the Penguins up 1-0. UH Hilo dealt the Penguins a double-blow in the 53rd minute. Kristine Pasek took a deflection off the Dominican defense and found herself with a 1-vs-1 against Lentz. She finished past a sliding Lentz to the bottom of the goal. Lentz was slow to get up and was eventually helped off by the training staff, which saw the Penguins use their third goalkeeper of the day, true freshman Sylvann Islas. Islas would make two saves over the final 37:36 while Meza would score again to lift the Penguins to victory. Ivy Torres saved a ball from going out on the goal line to the right of the net, then played the ball back to the center. Torres' ball found Meza, who finished to the low left corner of the goal.

The Penguins outshot the Vulcans 11-6 and placed five shots on goal. In addition to Meza's two scores, Ramirez, Wakida, and Payten Sonnen each had a shot on goal.

"I think today was a perfect game for our final game out on Kennelly Field," said Hanson, who played all 90 minutes. "Everyone, especially Mariah, stepped up and came together really well to get the win."

The victory moved the Penguins up one place in the PacWest standings, from ninth to eighth place. The Penguins will look to move up further in the final stretch. Dominican finishes the 2014 campaign with three road matches beginning Thursday, Oct. 30 at Dixie State. From there, Dominican heads to Azusa Pacific on Nov. 1, then wraps things up on Nov. 8 versus Holy Names in Oakland.