HAYWARD, Calif. — The Dominican University of California women's volleyball team opened the season with a split in the Route 92 Showdown hosted by Cal State East Bay. Dominican fell in the season opener, 3-0 (25-17, 25-13, 25-21), to Chico State, then prevailed with a sweep (25-18, 25-12, 25-21) of its own over the host Pioneers.

"You could see some nerves in the first match. Chico State is a good team, defensively they're very scrappy like we are, and they're hard to score on so we knew that would be a rough first match", said Head Coach Gayle Stammer. "In a way it was a very good match to get us prepared for the rest of this weekend."

Freshman Brittany Latigue scored the first point of the season but a four-point swing moments later gave Chico State a 7-4 lead. The Penguins answered with a four-point run of their own but Chico State countered with six of the final seven points to take set one. A six-point run by the Wildcats midway through set two found Dominican trailing 17-7 and the two teams simply traded points until Chico State tallied 25 to take a 2-0 lead. Looking to keep the match alive, the Penguins surged ahead in set three with five consecutive points for a 16-10 lead but Chico State was unphased and scored the next seven to regain the lead, 17-16. Three Dominican attack errors proved costly and allowed Chico State to complete the sweep.

"We were able to come in against East Bay and settle in and do what we do well," added Stammer. "Hannah Smith ran a very good offense tonight, our freshman middles have played mature volleyball, and our back line was solid – Amanda Lee was insanely good. Our ball control is going to win some matches for us."

The Penguins hit .358 in their match versus Cal State East Bay and limited their attack errors to eight. Dominican rebounded from a slow start to grab a 10-8 lead thanks to a five-point run, three of which points came off of Kate Even kills. An attack error broke up the surge but Shannon RiggioKerley added a kill and setter Hannah Smith caught the defense off guard with a dump for the kill. Dominican closed out the first set 10-4 to take the early match lead. Dominican built a quick 10-4 lead in set two and never looked back, closing that set out on a 6-1 run with five of those points coming from Riggio-Kerley kills. The Pioneers took a 3-1 lead to open set three, however Dominican capitalized on a string of CSUEB errors to grab a 7-3 lead. The Penguins didn't trail again and held on 25-21 for the sweep and their first win of the season.

Aimee Steinwand finished the day with 19 kills, including a team-high 10 in the opener. Kate Even tallied 14 kills and Shannon Riggio-Kerley added a dozen. Smith dished out 58 assists on the day. Lee led all players with 32 digs, including 19 with no reception errors in the win.

Dominican wraps up play in the Route 92 Showdown at Cal State East Bay on Saturday with a 9 a.m. match vs. Cal State Dominguez HIlls and finishes the weekend against Stanislaus State at 2 p.m.