SAN RAFAEL, Calif. – Dominican women's volleyball dug deep to get its first victory of the season 3-2 (20-25, 25-21, 12-25, 25-23, 15-8) Wednesday night over Hawaii Pacific at the Conlan Center.
Ella Heckman led the way for the Penguins with 20 kills on a .319 hitting percentage to go with three blocks.
Gabi Maiocco finished with 44 assists, while Jasmine Heyward finished with a double-double of 11 kills and 17 digs to go with two service aces. Marley Sandoval finished the match with 10 kills and four blocks to lead the Sharks.
The first set began as a tight battle with HPU slowly building a 12-9 lead near the midway point, but Heckman bracketed a kill from Maiocco on a dump with a pair of her own from the outside to quickly tie the set. Lachelle Sike helped the Sharks regain the advantage with a pair of kills during a 4-point run, but
Edee Leslie capped a 3-0 Dominican response with a kill to keep things close. The Penguins though helped the Sharks build a late five-point advantage with several errors and HPU would hold on to take the 1-0 lead in the match.
Dominican got off to a strong start in the second as
Vanna Marquez found the floor on a pair of aces before Heckman put down a powerful kill to take the quick 4-0 lead and force a Shark timeout. HPU slowly chipped away tying the set 15-15 on an ace from Riley Gill, but Heyward found the court on back-to-back kills to keep the Penguins out in front. After the Sharks battled back to tie the set once again it was late set errors by them that turned the tide and helped push the Dominican lead to 22-18 and the Penguins traded points the rest of the way to tie the match once again at a set apiece.
The Sharks reversed the script in the third set as they started strong with Kohana Fukuchi serving up a pair of aces to build the 5-1 lead. Lachelle Sikes then led a 4-0 HPU run with a kill and a block as the lead grew to eight with Dominican struggling to find the success that carried them in the third set. Not much went right for the Penguins as the Sharks continued to add to its lead, pulling away for the 25-12 set victory to take the 2-1 advantage into the fourth.
Heckman helped the Penguins quickly build some momentum in the fourth with a pair of early kills, while Heyward found the floor for a kill to take the 5-2 lead. Heyward then sent a strong serve that was too hard to handle before Heckman combined with
Amani Abed for a block to highlight a 3-point run that pushed the Dominican lead to 10-5. Gill collected a pair of blocks to help the Sharks get right back into the set on a 4-0 run but Heckman had a kill and a block assist to lead a 4-1 run that pushed the lead to 15-11 at the halfway mark. The Sharks came back once again, chipping away until Gill gave them the 20-19 lead with an ace, but a pair of errors allowed Dominican to retake the lead. Marly Sandoval combined with Morghn Monahan before finding the floor for a kill to swing the lead back to HPU, but the momentum would be short lived as an error and a kill by Avery Schneider gave the Penguins set point. HPU fought off the first set point, but the ensuing service went long and Dominican sent the match to a fifth set.
Dominican started well as Abed quickly recorded a kill from the middle before Leslie and Avery Schneider combined for a block and Marquez once again served up an ace to take a 3-0 lead and HPU called the timeout to regroup. Things did not get better out of the timeout for the Sharks as a pair of errors increased their deficit to five before Gill finally found the court for a kill. The teams then began to trade points until Schneider followed up a Heyward kill with an ace to spark a 3-point run that pushed the Penguins to a 10-5 lead. Dominican continued to ride the wave of momentum with Heckman recording back-to-back kills before Marquez ended the match with her fourth ace of the night to send the Penguins home victorious.
Dominican will return to the court for its final match of the 2022 season Thursday against Chaminade at 7:30 p.m. PST at the Conlan Center.
