FRESNO, Calif. - Fresno Pacific received 22 kills from Karah Mitchell and 60 assists from Bissie DenHartog on Monday night, but visiting Dominican played spoiler as the Sunbirds dropped their home opener in five sets at the FPU Events Center. Set scores were 25-22, 25-21, 24-26, 23-25 and 15-9 in favor of the Penguins.
 
FPU drops its fourth straight match and falls to 2-5 overall and 0-3 in the PacWest with the loss, while Dominican moves to 7-4 overall and 3-0 in league action.
 
After falling in the opening two sets, the Sunbirds received a spark off the bench in set three from Sarah McCann. The junior tallied seven kills in the set and powered FPU to a 26-24 win. The Sunbirds then closed set four on an 11-3 run to force a decisive fifth set. Dominican responded in the fifth, however, hitting .304 as a team and held FPU to a clip of .077 to earn the 15-9 set and match victory.
 
"Dominican had a different contrast in its style of game compared to our first two opponents in the league, with good ball control and placement," said head coach Tracy Ainger-Schulte. "We were exposed in a different way tonight. I was proud of how we battled back into the match, especially winning a couple of close sets, which we haven't done yet this season. Our next step beyond that is to close out the match."
 
Mitchell's 22 kills were a career high as the junior also finished the night with 13 digs and one service ace. Jasmine Phoolka added 14 kills for the Sunbirds, while Montana Lowe chipped in with 10 and McCann finished with nine. DenHartog's 60 assists were just under her career high of 64 set her freshman season against Cal State San Bernardino. Chelsea Speaks spearheaded the defense with a career high 38 digs.
 
Dominican finished the night with a balanced offensive attack, as four different Penguins finished with double-digit kills. Aimee Steinwand led the way with 16 kills, while Amanda Lee powered the defense with 32 digs.
 
FPU is back in action on Friday at home against Point Loma at 7 p.m.