SAN RAFAEL, Calif. – Dominican women's volleyball fell 26-24, 25-22, 25-17 Wednesday night to Academy of Art at the Conlan Center.
 
Junior outside hitter Catherine Johnson led the Penguins (1-11, 1-6 PacWest) with 11 kills on a .280 hitting percentage. Freshman middle blocker Kiana Pelton added eight kills and three blocks, while junior Rebecca Smith played a utility roll for Dominican finishing with seven kills, 18 assists and 14 digs.
 
Ashley Pawlak led all players with 13 kills to go with 20 digs for the Urban Knights (5-11, 3-6 PacWest) and ART U finished with a .205 hitting percentage.
 
Sadie Emery sparked the first run of the match for the Urban Knights with a kill and followed up with a block assist as they scored four unanswered to take the 8-4 lead. The Penguins took advantage of several ART U errors to put together a 5-1 run and quickly tie up the set. Picabo Reinhold did a good job of spreading the ball around to her attackers to lead a 7-1 Urban Knight run to grab the lead and the momentum. Dominican mounted a late comeback as Teddy Batinkova put down back-to-back kills to spark a 6-0 run to tie the match at 21. ART U took advantage of back-to-back errors to get a little breathing room back, but roll shots by Johnson and Batinkova gave the momentum back to the Penguins and an attacking error set them up with a set point. The Urban Knights ended the set on 3-0 run as Pawlak sealed the set victory it with a kill off the block.
 
Emery was the spark early in the set once again for ART U as she had two kills to open on a 5-1 run. The Urban Knights then used a couple more errors to extend the lead to seven, but the Penguins began to chip away as Eleni Loizou found the court on a kill and Samantha Brown found an empty spot on the court for an ace to cut the lead to 12-8. Johnson and Pelton went back-to-back with kills to cap a 3-point run to close the gap to two for Dominican. After Loizou closed the gap to one with a strong kill down the line, Pawlak found an empty spot in the middle of the floor before hitting one off the block to give the Urban Knights a 20-17 lead. It was all the breathing room they would need to close out the 2-0 lead in the match.
 
Emery once again was the spark plug for ART U in the third set leading an opening 4-1 charge with two more kills. The teams traded points for the next several minutes until Carly Evetts put down back-to-back kills during a 4-0 run to extend the Urban Knight lead to 16-9. The teams traded points for the remainder of the set to give Academy of Art the sweep.
 
The Penguins will be hosting Domestic Violence Awareness night and dropping another academic banner Friday as they take on Azusa Pacific at 7 p.m. PDT at the Conlan Center. Live stats and video will be available online.