HONOLULU, Hawaii- Dominican women's volleyball opened PacWest play with a dub late Thursday night in the shark tank against Hawaii Pacific University. This is the first time since 2016 that the Penguins have collected a victory in the conference opener. Fans, this is a new era of Dominican volleyball.

The Penguins worked hard for this win as the match would go all five sets, and a little extra. Dominican won the last set in thrilling fashion 19 to 17 giving them two wins on the young season. After flying into the mainland a day before, the Penguins didn't show any jet lag as they jumped out to a quick lead against the Sharks winning the first set 25 to 19. Senior Camille Rivers was responsible for the last three points of the set causing two attack errors from HPU and collecting one ace.

HPU would win the next two sets, but the Pengs showed no sign of giving up. The fourth set would be back-and-forth with no team having a lead bigger than four. Later in the set, Dominican would lean on their upperclassmen to close out the set. Down to the match point for the Sharks, junior Avery Schneider remained composed while receiving a pass from Rivers and slammed one down past the HPU defenders to tie things up at 25. When the match was at 26 a piece, graduate transfer Reagan Macha had no problem being the closer for Dominican. She would go on and score the next two points for the Pengs forcing a fifth set.

The key to a fifth set is starting fast and jumping out to a quick lead, and Dominican did both. Schneider led the charge to begin the final set as she would go for consecutive kills giving the Penguins an early lead. The Penguins were not only relying on their offense to close out this match, but their defense was on display grabbing three blocks in the final set. Macha showed her defensive skills as she skied high for a block to give Dominican a 10-9 lead. She would end the night with four.

As the Penguins got into crunch time they embraced the moment. Just like they were in the fourth set, HPU had a match point but were unable to seal the deal. Freshman Chloe Cruz dished out a nice pass to Macha who capitalized and slammed it home tying the set at 16. Sophomore Ashlyn Daugherty played a big role in the team's final three points to bring home the dub. Daugherty and junior Lauren Wiley used their length to collect a block to tie things up at 17, and then Daugherty placed a perfect serve past the Shark defenders for an ace. Daugherty's length caused havoc for HPU all night and on the last play as she forced an attack error to seal the victory. 

Macha, the Texas native, finished the match with a game-high 24 kills. Schneider was right behind her slamming home 16 kills on the night. Rivers led the Penguins in the assists department with 38 while Cruz dished out 18. Senior Rein Bocage went for a game-high 28 digs.

The Penguins will continue their Hawaiian road-trip tonight as they square off against Chaminade at 8 p.m. PST.