San Rafael, Calif. -- In the first match of its two-day trip to the Bay Area, Azusa Pacific sealed its sixth straight PacWest victory Friday evening against Dominican, 3-1 (25-20, 25-15, 22-25, 25-11).

With the win the Cougars up their record to 12-2 overall and remain in second place in the PacWest with a 6-0 mark, trailing Chaminade and the Silverswords' 8-0 conference record. 

How It Happened:
The Cougars collectively posted a .291 hitting percentage compared to Dominican's .092 percentage. 

Azusa Pacific came out with a slow start in the first set, but the Cougars grew a 16-14 lead into a 23-17 advantage midway through the set. Dominican responded by narrowing the gap to 23-20, but with back-to-back kills from Julianne Miller and Annaka Jorgenson, the Cougars closed out the first set with a 25-20 victory.

The Cougars wasted no time in the second set, jumping out to a quick 15-4 lead. Following a brief Dominican run, in which the Penguins cut the deficit to 15-7, Azusa Pacific rallied back with another kill from Jorgenson and never looked back as the Cougars cruised their way to a 25-15 set win and a 2-0 match lead.

Heading into the third set, the Cougars jumped out to an early 7-1 lead over the Penguins. Dominican responded by narrowing the gap midway through the set 18-17 after four consecutive kills by Catherine Johnson. With the Cougars holding on to a small 21-20 lead, Dominican went on a 5-1 run to eventually secure its first set victory of the night at 25-22, and extended the match. 

Moving into the fourth and eventual final set, two kills from Sara Wagenveld and a couple Dominican errors gave Azusa Pacific a comfortable 14-5 lead. The Cougars continued to show strong play and extended the lead to as much as 14 points with a 24-10 advantage. A kill from Amy Hinnant secured the set and match to give the Cougars its sixth conference victory. 

Miller was dominant for Azusa Pacific offensively and defensively, as she finished with 15 kills on 28 attempts (.464 hitting percentage), five blocks, and seven digs. Wagenveld finished with 11 kills in the match, and Katarina Radisic nearly reached double digits with nine kills. Libero Bailey Henington continued to rack up digs, as she finished the game with 28 total digs in four sets played for an average of seven digs per set. On the season, Henington has 323 digs over 51 sets played for an average of 6.33 digs per set. Through last week, Henington ranked fourth in NCAA Division II in digs per set. Mina Andjelkovic was the Cougars' main distributor all night, as she closed out the match with 31 assists.  

What's Next:
The Cougars will return to action tomorrow, October 12, for their seventh PacWest contest of the season. Azusa Pacific will travel to Belmont, Calif. and take on Notre Dame De Namur at 3:00 p.m.