HONOLULU – Dominican women's volleyball struggled to find its offense against Hawai'i Pacific as it fell 3-1 Thursday night at The Shark Tank.
Ella Heckman led the way for the Penguins with 14 kills on a .478 hitting percentage. The Sharks countered with Ella Dotson who finished with 16 kills on a .483 hitting percentage.
Dominican started slow as a bevy of errors lifted HPU to a 15-2 lead. The Penguins got back-to-back kills from
Amani Abed and Heckman as they tried to get back into the match cutting their deficit to 10. The Sharks though continued to be the beneficiary of errors as they went on to the 25-12 victory.
Dominican eliminated its mistakes from the first set and got off to a much stronger start in the second as Heckman had a pair of early kills to lead a 3-0 run. Ali Rumpel served an ace to cap a 3-point run for HPU as the teams remained close.
Avery Schneider began another 3-0 run for the Penguins with a kill and followed it up as she combined with
Teddy Batinkova for a block to take a narrow two-point lead.
Amani Abed capped a 4-1 Dominican run with a kill to extend the lead to 12-8, but the Sharks quickly closed back within one after three unanswered. Batinkova took control for Dominican with three kills in a 4-1 run that helped gain separation for Dominican yet again at 18-14. This time the Penguins did not allow the HPU comeback as Batinkova put the set away with a kill for the 25-19 set victory to even the match.
Ella Dotson put the Sharks up 5-2 early in the third set with a block and a kill. Dominican was then plagued by errors once again as four errors fueled a 6-0 run that pushed the HPU lead to double digits at 15-5. The teams traded points until a 4-0 Shark run gave them the 25-11 set victory.
The Sharks jumped out to an early lead once again in the fourth as aces by Riley Gill and Rumpel propelled a 6-1 run to start the set.
Sara Hiebert helped cut the deficit to three with a kill and a block, but Dotson bookended a 6-0 run with a pair of kills that pushed HPU to a 17-8 lead. The Penguins were unable to recover down the stretch against the Sharks.
Dominican will finish its road trip on the big island of Hawai'i where it will face University of Hawai'i at Hilo on Saturday at 7 p.m. HST at Vulcan Gymnasium.
