HONOLULU – Dominican women's volleyball fell 25-20, 25-17, 25-22 Thursday night to Hawai'i Pacific at The Shark Tank.

Freshman middle blocker Edee Leslie led the Penguins (1-14, 1-9 PacWest) with seven kills, two aces and a block. Freshman middle blocker Kiana Pelton added four kills and four blocks for Dominican. The Sharks (13-6, 9-2 PacWest) were led by Camryn Collie's 10 kills, while Perla Escobar finished just short of a double-double with nine kills and 14 digs.

The teams traded points for nearly half of the first set as the Penguins held a small 13-12 lead after an ace from Leslie. Abigail Wilmington and Kirah Boynton-Brown had back-to-back blocks for the Sharks to rattle Dominican's hitters as they went on a 7-0 run to lead 19-13. After HPU reached set point, Leslie put down two kills and, combined with several bad sets from the Sharks, the Penguins charged back to within four to force a timeout. The break worked as a service error gave HPU the point it needed to win 25-20.

Escobar sparked the Sharks in the second set with two kills to start a 4-0 run to take a three point lead. Dominican was able to take advantage of back-to-back bad sets to tie the set at 5-5, but it would be short lived as Collie led another 4-point HPU run to make it 10-6. The Sharks continued to slowly add to their lead, pushing it as high as eight on their way to the 2-0 lead in the match.

The teams once again traded points early in the third set with Dominican holding a slim 6-4 lead, but several Penguin errors allowed a 4-0 HPU run to retake the momentum and a two-point advantage of their own. The Sharks continued to take advantage of Dominican errors to push the lead to seven at 16-9 to take firm hold of the momentum. The Penguins would not go down without a fight as Pelton led a 5-1 run with a pair of kills and a block to make it 24-21 and force the HPU timeout. An attack error closed the gap to two, but the large lead was too much to overcome and Makenna Gambee gave the Sharks the match with a kill.

Dominican will continue its road trip Friday against Chaminade at 7 p.m. HST at McCabe Gymnasium. Live stats and video will be available online.