SAN RAFAEL, Calif- Dominican women's volleyball played in front of their fans for the first time this season Thursday night squaring off against cross town rival Academy of Art. The Penguins accomplished something they haven't done since 2018, and that was win a home opener. On the eve of family weekend, the Penguins showed up and showed out defeating the Urban Knights 3 sets to 1.

Graduate student Reagan Macha led the way for Dominican posting a double-double going for 13 kills while digging 10 digs. Senior Camille Rivers also had a double-double of her own going for 15 assists and 12 digs. Fellow senior Ella Heckman was second on the team slamming home nine kills on the night while junior Lauren Wiley was right behind her with seven.

Academy of Art came into this match with undefeated in conference play, not anymore. The Urban Knights jumped out to an early lead and never let the Penguins take a lead in the first set. Dominican found their stride in the second set quickly dismissing the results in the first. They would score the first four points in the second set which alerted Academy of Art that the Pengs came to play. Junior Kendal Kibanoff was a spark-plug tonight for Coach Loesch and made her impact felt by collecting a game-high four aces. Her second ace of the night was perfectly placed to seal the second set for Dominican.

With things knotted at one, the third set turned out to be the most crucial one. This year's squad boasts a bunch of talented freshmen, and their talent was on display in this set. Melena Wong was assisting her teammates all night dishing out 15 assists with five of them coming in the third set. Fellow freshman Kali Young gave the Urban Knights trouble throughout the match with six kills, but none were bigger than her back-to-back kills to ice the third set pushing the Pengs lead to 2-1.

The last set was a perfect example of the Penguins working together to finish the job. Early in the fourth set, Wong dished one out to Wiley who slammed one home for a three-point cushion. Dominican would work up a 19 to 11 lead after another dominant kill from Wiley. Academy of Art wouldn't go away quietly as they cut the deficit down to three, but as mentioned before, this is a new era of Dominican volleyball folks. The Penguins were able to dig deep and regroup to finish off the Urban Knights winning the last set 25 to 21. This also marked the first victory over Academy of Art since 2020.

The Penguins will look to carry this momentum into their next match which is this Sunday Sept. 29^th at 2 p.m. against Hawaii Hilo.