SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — The Dominican University of California women's volleyball team fell 3-1 (25-23, 16-25, 25-19, 25-13) to visiting Fresno Pacific in PacWest play on Saturday and dropped the two-match season series.
The Dominican (5-8/2-5 PacWest) lineup is currently riddled with injuries. After sophomore
Madison Marshall saw her season end before it began with a knee injury, the Penguins got
Amanda Wasko back in the lineup. However, the All-PacWest performer suffered another injury during the team's trip to Hawai'i. Sophomore
Aimee Steinwand was not at full health after landing on her elbow in a midweek practice. That resulted in Steinwand being limited to five kills on 26 swings.
Despite the Penguins' thin lineup, Dominican kept close in set one and grabbed set two but was unable to sustain the momentum.
Dominican turned to its freshman middle blockers,
Kate Even and
Brittany Latigue, for the offense. The duo combined for 23 of the Penguins' 43 kills. Junior
Madeline Powelson and sophomore
Shannon RiggioKerley added seven kills apiece. Junior
Amanda Lee recorded a match-high 22 digs. She now has 901 in her career and is on pace to reach the 1,000-dig mark by the end of the season. Riggio-Kerley added 17 digs and
Alexa LoGiudice had 11. Junior setter
Hannah Smith dished out 37 assists and had nine digs in the loss.
The Sunbirds (4-8/4-3 PacWest) were led by Carley Bock's match-high 18 kills. Four FPU players reached double digit digs, led by 20 from Bissie DenHartog, who also dished out 53 assists. Two-time PacWest Libero of the Year Hannah Butler added 14.
Dominican will embark on a three-day, three-match road trip to Southern California's PacWest members. The matches begin Thursday, Oct. 15 at Point Loma (8-8/3-5 PacWest) in San Diego.
