HONOLULU – Hawai'i Pacific University collected its third straight sweep on Thursday night with its straight sets win over Dominican (Calif.) in PacWest Conference play at The Shark Tank.
 
The Sharks (13-6, 9-2) ripped the Penguins (1-14, 1-9) 25-20, 25-17, 25-22 for their ninth win in their last 10 matches, with seven of those wins sweeps. HPU also swept Dominican on Oct. 5 in San Rafael.
 
HPU hit just .196 with six team blocks in the victory, but Dominican hit only .020 with five team blocks.
 
Junior Cameryn Collie of El Dorado Hills, Calif./Oak Ridge led the match with 10 kills and a .421 attack percentage, while senior Perla Escobar of Calexico, Calif./Calexico just missed a double-double with nine kills and 14 digs. Sophomore Makenna Gambee of Hillsboro, Ore./Hillsboro hit .417 with seven kills and a block. Junior Abigail Wilmington of Vancouver, Wash./Columbia River recorded six blocks.
 
The Penguins were led by Edee Leslie with seven kills, a block and a .400 attack percentage. Kiana Pelton tallied four blocks.
 
The Sharks got off to a slow start and Dominican pressed hard with the teams tying 10 times with five lead changes. The last tie was at 13-all after a Collie kill that ignited a 7-0 to put HPU in front for good. The Sharks opened up a 24-15 lead on kill by Gambee, but the Penguins made a run and pulled within four at 24-20 before a DUC service error gave HPU the set 25-20.
 
The Sharks and Penguins exchanged points to a 6-6 tie in the second set before HPU rolled through a 7-1 run capped by a kill from Collie. HPU stretched out its lead while freely substituting and ended the set with a kill from Escobar for the 25-17 win.
 
The third set was again tight early before HPU went on an 11-2 run to build a 19-10 advantage on an Escobar kill. The large lead caused the Sharks to freely sub, with 13 players seeing action in the set. HPU led 22-12 when DUC made a move with a 7-1 run. But it was too little, too late as the Sharks. HPU reentered the front line and swapped points with the Penguins to win 25-22 on a Gambee kill.
 
HPU has a day to recover from back-to-back matches before the Sharks hosting Notre Dame de Namur on Saturday at 7 p.m. in The Shark Tank.