HONOLULU — Hawai'i Pacific University ran its winning streak to four straight on Thursday night with an exciting 3-2 PacWest Conference victory over Dominican (Calif.) in James Castle Gym at St. Andrew's Priory.
 
The Sharks (12-7, 8-2) avenged one of their two league losses and claimed their eighth win in the last 10 matches with a 25-17, 17-25, 28-26, 22-25, 15-8 win over the Penguins (13-7, 9-3).
 
It was a 3-1 loss at Dominican on Oct. 1 that marks HPU's lone blemish since Sept. 26.
 
"This was a great win," said HPU coach Jenic Tumaneng. "We all remembered what happened in California and stepped up our game tonight. We came through when we needed it."
 
Senior Pomai Recca led all players with 24 kills. The 5-9 outside hitter from Waimanalo, Hawai'i/Kamehameha-Kapalama, picked up her 13th double-double of the season with 18 kills to go with three blocks and a .333 hitting percentage, as four Sharks registered double-digit kills.
 
Freshman Alison McCollum, a 6-1 right side hitter from LaCanada, Calif./Flintridge Sacred Hearts, collected a career-high 16 kills with a .273 hitting percentage. Sophomore Kayla Demari, a 6-2 right side hitter from Dana Point, Calif./JSerra Catholic, added 11 kills, with 6-1 sophomore middle blocker Carson Pyle of Houston, Texas/Memorial posting 10 kills with a .529 hitting percentage and five blocks.
 
Dominican's Madeline Powelson and Aimee Steinwand each recorded 13 kills and 14 digs.
 
The Sharks hit .250 as a team, despite the Penguins 11.0 team blocks. DUC hit .201 with HPU notching 5.0 team blocks.
 
Hawai'i Pacific is one full game behind leader California Baptist in the PacWest race. The Lancers are 9-1 in PacWest play, with Concordia Irvine at 10-2 in second followed by HPU and Dixie State at 8-2.
 
HPU opened up the match with a strong first set, posting a 25-17 win. The Sharks hit .452 for the set, but saw Dominican fight back after being down 22-10. DUC pulled to within 24-17 before Demari ended the set with a kill.
 
The Sharks opened up with an 8-2 lead in the second set, but Dominican roared back to tie the set 10. After a pair of mini-runs for both teams left the score at 16-15 DUC, the Penguins went on a 9-2 run to claim the second set 25-17.
 
HPU opened up a seven point lead early in set three, but Dominican answered to send the set to into a back-and-forth affair. Dominican worked its way to a 24-22 and was serving set point when the Sharks got a kill from Recca followed by a Penguin hitting error to tie the set at 24-all.
 
Dominican went up 25-24, only to have Pyle and Recca record consecutive kills for a 26-25 HPU advantage. HPU suffered a service error on its first set point for a 26-all tie, then kill from Recca and a forced attack error by DUC's Brittany Latigue gave the Sharks a 28-26 win.
 
"I actually ran out of substitutions and had to use libero Amanda Acosta to set," said Tamaneng. "We practice the situation and handled it perfectly."
 
HPU rallied from a 22-17 deficit in the fourth set to get to 23-22, but a pair of Powelson kills and an attack error by the Sharks gave the fourth set to Dominican 25-22 and sent the match to the deciding fifth set.
 
The Sharks and Penguins battled to 5-all when the Sharks grabbed a lead they wouldn't relinquish. Up 8-7, HPU closed the match with a 7-1 run that included scoring the last five points. Recca scored on four of those last five points.
 
Tumaneng added that it was a total team effort.
 
"It's a team. Everybody's got everybody's back and if someone isn't playing well another has her back. We just need to keep positive and ride this ship together," Tumaneng said.
 
The Sharks don't have long to enjoy the victory, they will put their streak on the line Saturday night at Castle Gym when they host Azusa Pacific in PacWest play. The fifth contest in HPU's nine-match homestand starts at 7 p.m. at St. Andrew's Priory.