SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — The Dominican University of California women's volleyball team played its best volleyball of the season but the Penguins fell in five sets, 3-2 (17-25, 25-23, 25-26, 24-26, 8-15), to visiting Azusa Pacific in front of a full house at the Conlan Center on Saturday night.
The Penguins (2-11/0-5 PacWest) responded to the crowd's energy, which was swathed in black for the , and used a .542 attack percentage coupled with a 6-0 run that forced Azusa Pacific (7-6/4-1 PacWest) to call a pair of timeouts, to take set one 25-17. The Penguins took a 2-0 lead in set two but fell behind by three points and were forced to play from behind. A
Shannon RiggioKerley kill avoided set point but and the Cougars' lead slipped to 24-23 with an attack error but Kami Zoller's kill evened the set at 1-1.
The momentum carried into the third set for the Cougars, who opened the set with the first five points.
Samantha Rains stopped the bleeding with a kill and the Penguins rallied back to take a 9-8 lead. However, four consecutive kills from Alicia Utke shifted the lead back to Azusa Pacific at 12-9. Utke, whose 16 kills led the Cougars, closed the set out with three more kills to give Azusa Pacific the 2-1 match lead. The Penguins cooled off considerably in the second and third sets, posting .051 and .045 attack percentages.
Set four was tightly contested, with neither team leading by more than three points. Tied 19-19, the Penguins fell behind by a pair but eventually evened the set back at 23-23 on a Riggio-Kerley kill and Rains service ace. Mattie Shelford gave the Cougars the lead with a kill but another Riggio-Kerley kill tied the match and a pair of Cougars errors allowed the Penguins to even that match and force a fifth set.
Aimee Steinwand began the fifth set with a kill but the Cougars scored the next four points and forced Dominican to catch up. The Penguins hit .263 in the final set but five errors prevented them from catching up.
With injuries mounting, Dominican used a new lineup that saw sophomore
Madeline Powelson don the libero jersey for the first time in her career. She responded well with a career-high and match-high 24 digs. Steinwand led all players with a career-highs of 19 kills and 16 digs. Riggio-Kerley added career-highs with 13 kills and 14 digs.
Hannah Smith matched a season-high with 45 assists.
"We trotted out a new, young lineup tonight and it worked for us," said Head Coach
Gayle Stammer. "Despite the outcome we got better tonight."
Dominican continues the six-match homestand on Friday, Oct. 3 when BYU-Hawaii visits the Conlan Center for a 7 p.m. match. Live coverage will be available at
dominicanathletics.com/live and
radio.dominican.edu.
