SAN RAFAEL, Calif. – Dominican women's volleyball finished strong, but still fell 3-1 (25-12, 25-22, 22-25, 26-24) to Chaminade on Sunday at the Conlan Center. 

Senior Cat Thomason led the Penguins (6-14, 4-11 PacWest) with nine kills on a .391 hitting percentage and added three total blocks. Sophomore Catherine Johnson and freshman Brittania Chan tied Thomason for the team-high with nine kills each, while Chan added 11 digs for a double-double. Junior Josie Walser added 32 assists, two kills, two blocks and six digs. 

Emma Tecklenburg led the charge for the Silverwords (17-4, 11-4 PacWest) with 23 kills on a .327 hitting percentage, one total block, and six digs. Brooke Bell also made her presence felt at the net with 16 kills on a .520 hitting percentage and six blocks. 

Chaminade ended the night with a .276 total hitting percentage and 64 kills, while Dominican finished with a .159 total hitting percentage and 42 total kills.

Bell started the Silverswords off strong in the first set with three blocks and a kill during a 5-1 run to open the set. Bell and Tecklenburg then led a 9-1 run with two kills and a block assist each to extend the Chaminade lead to 10. The Silverswords were able to keep its distance as it took the first set 25-12.

The Penguins had a stronger start to the second set as Walser spread the ball around to her attackers to lead a 5-1 run, giving Dominican the 9-7 lead. Alana Handy responded for leading Chaminade on a 5-1 run of its own to retake the two point advantage. The Silverswords slowly built a six point lead, but the Penguins would not go away so easily this set as they took advantage of several errors to close the gap to 24-22. The run came too late though as a Dominican attack error on the next rally gave Chaminade the 2-0 advantage in the match.

Thomason sparked the Penguins early in the third set with a kill and a block to start a three-point burst which gave them a 6-4 lead. Chan then led a 3-0 run with a kill and an ace to extend the lead a bit, but Chaminade slowly chipped away to close the gap back to one at 12-11. Dominican once again was the beneficiary of Silversword errors as it took a 16-12 lead moments later. It was all the room the Penguins would need as they held off several small runs until Thomason ended the set with two side-out kills for the 25-22 victory.

After the fourth set began with the teams trading points, Chaminade went on a 6-1 run to build a 15-10 cushion and force a Dominican timeout. Handy helped the Silverswords extend its lead to seven after a pair of aces, but the Penguins began to charge back late. Sophomore Eleni Loizou began a 3-0 run that cut the lead to four and Johnson found the floor for three kills during a 5-1 run that tied the match at 23 just a few minutes later. After trading the next two points, Handy and Tecklenberg each contributed a kill to finish the match for Chaminade.

Dominican will return to the court Thursday to take on the University of Hawai'i at Hilo at 7 p.m. PDT in the Conlan Center. Live stats and video will be available online.