SAN RAFAEL, Calif.- Dominican women's basketball welcomed the Otters of CSU Monterey Bay into the Igloo Friday night for the second game of the PacWest/CCAA challenge and also their home opener. The Penguins would never trail in this one as they earned a hard-fought victory over the Otters 70-66.

The Penguins came out the gates strong in this one scoring the games first eight points. Junior Julianne Cotterill got the scoring started as she took a nice pass from teammate Abby Cooper and scooped it in for an easy lay-up. The Penguins would start the game on an 8-0 run where the defense forced two early turnovers which led to fast-break buckets. Andraya Perez would end the first quarter draining a long three-pointer to give the Pengs an early 17-10 lead.

The key to the first half was rebounds and Dominican dominated the boards grabbing 25 with 11 of them being offensive rebounds. Graduate student Taylor Linzie led the Penguins in that category hauling in eight rebounds in the first half while also swiping two steals. Linzie gave the Otters fits early on. Cooper and senior guard Alaiyah San Juan started to heat up in the second as Cooper found multiples holes in the Otters defense for easy lay-ups while San Juan would hit back-to-back jumpers. The Otters would keep climbing going on a 5-0 run to close the second quarter but still found themselves trailing at half 42-30.

Just like the Penguins started fast to begin the game, the Otters did the same coming out of halftime. They held Dominican to 23% from the field in the third while finishing off tough buckets down low to cut into the deficit. Just as the Otters were starting to gain momentum San Juan found a wide open Mikayla Amoroso who drained a long ball to halt the run. Even with Otter's success in the third, the Penguins would hold a five-point going into the final quarter.

Cooper lit up the Otters early in the first quarter and the Penguins went right back to her to keep the lead in the fourth. The Oregon native had a sweet three-point play as she made a tough lay-up while getting fouled. She calmly stepped to the charity stripe and hit her single free throw. Senior Alex Salise made her presence felt down the stretch when she hit a crucial three-pointer while the Otters were down by two. Then in the ensuing possession she grabbed a steal and took it all the way for the fast-break bucket. Cotterhill hit some free throws at the end to seal the victory for the Penguins.

Dominican will be back in action tomorrow Nov. 16^th at 7 p.m. when they host the Gators of San Francisco State.