SAN RAFAEL, Calif. – Dominican women's volleyball got off to a strong start, but fell 3-1 (19-25, 25-19, 25-16, 25-18) Friday night to Concordia University Irvine.

Junior Rebecca Smith recorded the first triple-double of her career with 11 kills, 13 assists and 10 digs for the Penguins (1-17, 1-12 PacWest). Tiffany Wong added 10 kills and 11 digs. Jaclyn Brown paced the Eagles (11-9, 5-7 PacWest) with 20 kills on a .333 hitting percentage, while Brianna Latigue finished with 42 assists.

Freshman middle blocker Kiana Pelton put down a powerful kill to spark a 4-0 run for Dominican to build an 11-5 lead. CUI closed to within two after an ace from Latigue, but junior outside hitter Catherine Johnson found the court for a kill and sophomore setter Haley Frederking served up an ace to make it 15-10 in favor of the Penguins. The Eagles slowly chipped away at the lead once again getting within two, but Smith did a good job of spreading the ball around to her hitters in a 6-1 run that gave Dominican the commanding seven point lead it would need to close out the set.

The Eagles got out to a narrow lead in the second set, but the Penguins kept within reach after a kill by Smith cut the lead to 10-8. The teams continued to trade points and runs until the Eagles closed on a 3-0 run capped by a service ace from Cassidy Gelacio to tie the match at a set apiece.

Brown led CUI on a 4-point run midway through the third set with a pair of kills to make it 14-9 and the Eagles grabbed all the momentum. Maddie Adams recorded an ace minutes later to keep things rolling for CUI as the lead grew to eight and Dominican was unable to find the answers it needed to close the gap. 

Riley Gill and Brown each had two kills to open the fourth set on a 5-1 Eagle run to continue the momentum from the previous two sets. After CUI pushed the lead to eight, the Penguins finally caught some momentum as Edee Leslie found the court on a nice kill and added a block during a 5-point run to close back within three. Pelton then combined with two different teammates on back-to-back blocks to cut the lead to two, but several Dominican errors fueled a 6-1 Eagle run to make it 23-16. The Penguins were unable to recover and an attack error gave CUI the 3-1 match victory.

Dominican will have a quick turnaround as it takes on BIOLA Saturday morning at 10 a.m. PDT due to the impending power outages in the Bay Area. Live stats and video will be available online.