BELMONT, Calif. – Dominican women's volleyball fell in a tight 3-2 (25-21, 25-27, 17-25, 25-15, 15-11) match against Notre Dame de Namur on Saturday afternoon at Walter Gleason Gymnasium.

Catherine Johnson led the Penguins (2-21, 2-16 PacWest) with 22 kills and six digs, while Tiffany Wong added 14 kills and 25 digs. Rebecca Smith also added a double-double of 21 assists and 15 digs to go with seven kills.

The Argonauts (4-21, 3-14 PacWest) were led by Chantal Zahrndt's double-double of 13 kills and 14 digs, while Destiny Williams added 14 kills and four blocks.

The teams traded points to open the first set until Kyahna Robinson powered a 4-0 NDNU run with a kill and a block to build a 12-9 lead. Johnson provided the response for Dominican a few minutes later with back-to-back runs in the middle of a 5-0 run to retake the 16-14 lead. After trading the next several points, the Argonauts took advantage of several Penguin errors and Robinson had two blocks and a kill to end the set on a 7-1 run.

Johnson sparked Dominican early in the second set with back-to-back-to-back kills and Wong capped off a large 13-1 run with a kill of her own to take an eight-point advantage. NDNU found its response late in the set as Samantha Shaffer had a kill and an ace to start a 10-1 run to retake a 21-20 lead. After the Argonauts held off four set-points, Maraih Ahid and Eleni Loizou capitalized on Dominican's fifth try with a block of Shaffer to tie the match at a set apiece.

Johnson found the floor for a kill to start a 4-0 run early in the third set and Smith ended it with a kill of her own to take the 7-3 lead. Johnson then led a 3-point run with two kills and Wong had two kills during a 4-point run to extend the lead to eight. This time the Penguins denied any attempted Argonaut comeback to take the 25-17 set victory.

Kathlin Martinez had back-to-back kills to steady the ship early in the fourth set for NDNU as they took a 4-1 lead. The teams traded points for the next several minutes until Martinez started an 8-0 NDNU run with Zahrndt finishing it off with a kill to make it 20-11. It was all the room they would need to force the fifth and deciding set.

Zahrndt continued to roll in the fifth set bracketing a kill by Shaffer with two of her own to build a 7-3 lead. Dominican chipped away at the lead as a kill from Edee Leslie put them back within one, but errors set NDNU up with match point and Shaffer finished it off with a kill to deny the comeback.

The Penguins will return to the court Wednesday as they travel south to take on Fresno Pacific at 6 p.m. PDT at the Special Events Center. Live stats and video will be available online.