SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — The Dominican University of California women's volleyball team returned home to the Conlan Center on Wednesday after nearly a month on the road and topped Academy of Art 3-1 (27-25, 22-25, 25-16, 25-19) in PacWest play.

The Penguins (5-7/2-4 PacWest) won the match at the net, where they outblocked the Urban Knights (6-9/2-5 PacWest) 15-5. Freshman Brittany Latigue led all players with nine blocks. Latigue also added 10 kills on .400 hitting. Sophomore Shannon RiggioKerley tallied a career-high seven blocks while fellow sophomore Aimee Steinwand had four blocks, a match-high 17 digs, and led the Penguins on the offensive end with 19 kills. Freshman Kate Even added four blocks and eight kills. Junior setter Smith also had four blocks and dished out 45 assists. The Penguins held a slight 69-68 digs advantage, led by junior libero Amanda Lee's match-high 17. Junior Madeline Powelson added 16 digs andophomore Alexa Logiudice had six.

Melissa Brum led all players with 21 kills for the Urban Knights. Stine Raben, who was coming off of PacWest Freshman of the Week honors, added 13 kills and nine digs.

Dominican grabbed an early four-point lead in set one but had to fend off an Urban Knights run that tied the match at 17-17. A Penguins error gave ART U its first lead of the night, 18-17, but the Penguins rallied. The teams traded points until 25-25 and the Penguins pulled away thanks to kills by Even and Steinwand. ART U evened the match after taking an 11-3 lead in set two. Dominican made it interesting and pulled to within three, 22-19, but the Urban Knights were able to get to 25 first. After breaking a 4-4 tie in set three, the Penguins grabbed the lead for good thanks to three consecutive ART U errors. Dominican built the lead to eight and consecutive block assists from Latigue and Riggio-Kerley gave the Penguins the 2-1 advantage. Dominican hit .306 in set four and closed the match on a 15-9 run.

Dominican hosts Fresno Pacific on Saturday, Oct. 10 at 3 p.m. in the afternoon. The last time the two teams met, the Penguins fell 3-1 in Fresno. It will be a marquee libero matchup: Dominican's Lee ranks second in the PacWest with 5.44 per set while FPU boasts two-time PacWest Libero of the Year Hannah Butler, who ranks third with 5.05 digs per set. Live stats and video will be available at dominicanathletics.com/live with live audio provided by radio.dominican.edu.

Saturday is also the first Chilly's Cove event of the season. Dominican alumni, donors, parents, and Penguin Club members are invited to Chilly's Cove an hour before first serve for light snacks and beverages, as well as raffle prizes.