SAN RAFAEL, Calif. – Dominican women's volleyball fell 3-0 (25-11, 25-20, 25-11) Friday night against Azusa Pacific at the Felix Event Center. 

Ella Heckman led the Penguins with eight kills on a .261 hitting percentage, while Gabi Maiocco finished with 15 assists and two blocks. The Cougars were led by Annaka Jorgenson's 16 kills and eight digs.

APU got off to a strong start as Aubrea Banfield moved the ball around with two early assists to go with an ace as the Cougars jumped out to a 4-0 lead. They continued to roll in the opening set as an 11-1 run pushed their lead to 13 led by four kills from Kyra Palmbush. Dominican finally found some momentum late as kills by Avery Maddox and Heckman powered a 5-1 run, but APU closed out the set victory for the 1-0 lead in the match. 

The Penguins built on their late-set surge as Heckman found the floor for a kill before Vanna Marquez served up an ace to take the early 3-1 lead. After APU battled back to take a 7-5 lead, Heckman set Edee Leslie for a kill on a broken play to spark a 4-point run that Amani Abed ended with a block and a kill from the middle to swing the two-point advantage back to Dominican. The teams began to trade small runs as the next several minutes of the set saw two ties and five lead changes. The Cougars finally pushed a lead over two on a 6-1 run ended with a Jorgenson kill to make it 21-17. APU was able to hold on down the stretch for the 25-20 set victory.

The teams traded the first few points of the third set but Palmbush bookended a 4-point Cougar run with a pair of kills to build a 9-4 lead. They continued to add to their lead as they held Dominican to sideout points the remainder of the set to secure the sweep. 

The Penguins will play one more match in their Southern California swing Saturday against Biola at 2 p.m. PDT.