FRESNO, Calif. — The Dominican University of California women's volleyball team, which traveled to Fresno short-handed due to injury and illness, took Fresno Pacific to five sets in a 3-2 (25-22, 25-13, 20-25, 21-25, 15-7) loss on Thursday in Pacific West Conference action.

Notably, Dominican was without senior Samantha Rains, who has been in the top five in NCAA Division II blocking, and sophomore Madeline Powelson. Still, the Penguins overcame a 2-0 deficit to rally back in the match.

Tied 6-6, the Penguins broke through in set three and pieced together a four-point run thanks to two Kaitlyn Van Ryn service aces and a pair of FPU attack errors. From there, Dominican built a five-point lead and held on for the 25-20 win in set three. In set four, the Penguins stuck to the same gameplan. Tied 5-5, Dominican scored the next four points to take a 9-5 lead and would lead until FPU tied the set at 16-16. Still, Dominican scored the final three points of the set to push the match to a fifth set.

FPU started strong in the decisive set and raced out to an 8-3 lead. The Penguins pulled within four points but ran out of time so to speak, dropping the final set 15-7.

Rebecca Waller had 21 kills for the Sunbirds and was one of three FPU players in double digits. Libero Hannah Butler finished with 30 digs.

Freshmen Aimee Steinwand and Shannon RiggioKerley made big contributions fwith 13 and 12 kills apiece. Riggio-Kerley made it a double-double with 13 digs. Amanda Lee led Dominican with 25 digs. In Rains' absence, Steinwand, Susanna Pilkerton, and Madison Marshall all finished with four total blocks apiece.

Dominican will have a second crack at the Sunbirds on Tuesday, Nov. 11, hopefully with a more complete arsenal at its disposal. First, Dominican hosts Notre Dame de Namur on Saturday, Nov. 8. First serve is slated for an early 3 p.m. start. The Penguins topped NDNU 3-1 in the two teams' last meeting on Oct. 18 and have not lost to the Argos since 2011. Live coverage for the Penguins' final three matches will be available at dominicanathletics.com/live and at radio.dominican.edu.