SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — The Dominican University of California women's volleyball team had its work cut out for it on Friday night, opening the 2015 home schedule to 2014 national runner-up Sonoma State. The Penguins eventually fell in five sets (14-25, 25-20, 25-17, 20-25, 15-8) to the No. 22 Seawolves but gave quite the showing to a raucous Conlan Center crowd.

It was a battle between Dominican's sophomore outside hitter, Aimee Steinwand, and Sonoma State senior outside hitter Madelyn Densberger. Both had career nights: Steinwand finished with a career-high 24 kills — third most in the DII era for Dominican, 14 digs, a career-high six blocks, and three service aces. Densberger finished with a career-high 26 kills, 19 digs, and five block assists. Densberger, a three-time All-CCAA player, powered the Seawolves down the stretch as she served five consecutive points that saw an 8-7 lead in the deciding set grow to a 13-7 Sonoma State lead.

The Penguins jumped out to the early lead thanks to an incredible .458 hitting percentage in set one. Dominican limited Sonoma State to 14 points and used a 7-1 run to take a 19-11 lead and force the Seawolves to call timeout. The Penguins closed out the first set but struggled to find a rhythm in set two. The Seawolves erased a 6-3 deficit to take an 11-7 lead. The Penguins pulled within a pair but kills from four different Seawolves evened the set. Sonoma State used several more runs in set three and took advantage of Dominican errors to grab a 2-1 lead. In set four, Dominican grabbed a 9-4 lead that forced another timeout. The Seawolves regrouped and tied the set at 14-14 but the Penguins rallied late. A Shannon RiggioKerley kill and a Kate Even service ace forced yet another timeout and the Penguins held on to force a fifth set. However, Sonoma State used a 5-1 run to force Dominican to take a timeout of its own and the Penguins never regained their footing.

Dominican's Amanda Wasko, who made her first appearance since 2013 after suffering a knee injury before the start of 2014, added nine kills and posted a .333 hitting percentage in her season debut. Riggio-Kerley added eight kills and 14 digs. Hannah Smith dished out 47 assists to go with a dozen digs. Reigning PacWest Defender of the Week Amanda Lee had 21 digs.
Caylie Seitz added 15 kills for the Seawolves and Lexi Reddick added a dozen.

Dominican will have little time to recover as the Penguins will cross the Golden Gate Bridge to face San Francisco State on Saturday, Sept. 11. First serve is slated for 3 p.m. in The Swamp.