AZUSA, Calif. – Dominican women's volleyball concluded its first trip to Southern California with a 3-0 (25-10, 25-22, 25-17) loss Saturday night to Azusa Pacific at the Felix Events Center.

Catherine Johnson led the Penguins (1-20, 1-15 PacWest) with seven kills and two blocks, while Rebecca Smith added five kills and 10 assists. The Cougars (17-5, 11-3 PacWest) rode Annaka Jorgenson's double-double of 13 kills and 10 digs to victory.

Maggie Nielson capped an early 7-1 run with a pair of aces to give APU an 11-5 lead in the opening minutes of the match. Julianne Miller then put down two of her 12 kills on the night in a 6-point run that extended the Cougars' lead to 12 and they rolled to the victory.

Miller had another kill and a block to begin the second set on a 4-0 run to keep the momentum firmly with APU. Smith sparked Dominican on its first run of the match with a kill and Edee Leslie added an ace to cut the gap to one. Jorgenson then found the floor on three consecutive points for the Cougars to push the lead back to four. Johnson and Smith kept the Penguins in the match with back-to-back kills to cut the deficit to 11-10. APU slowly built a five point lead, but Smith again provided the spark with a kill and a solo block to spark Dominican's largest run of the match, 6-0, to take the 17-16 lead. After errors gave the Cougars back the lead, Hana Wyles served up two aces to put APU on its heels with a 4-point run that made it 22-20 in favor of the Penguins. The Cougars answered with a 5-0 run to end the set and take a 2-0 lead in the match.

The third set continued to go back-and-forth with APU holding a slim lead until Johnson and Kiana Pelton each had two kills in a 4-point run to give Dominican the 12-11 lead. Jorgenson then put down two aces to answer with a 4-0 run for the Cougars to retake a two-point advantage. Miller caught fire late for APU with four kills and a block assist to power a 7-0 run to put the game out of reach and secure the sweep.

Dominican will return to the Bay Area to take on Academy of Art on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Kezar Pavilion. Live video and stats will be available online.