Manchester, NH (12/29/09)  The Dominican College women's basketball team returned to action for the first time in nine days and suffered a 44-64 loss to the second-ranked Ravens of Franklin Pierce University this afternoon at the Saint Anselm Holiday Classic.

The Ravens opened up the game with a 7-0 run and later went on a 9-0 run to take an 18-3 lead with just over ten minutes remaining in the first half.  FPU led by as many as 20 points in the first stanza and went into the intermission with an 32-14 lead.

Dominican struggled in the first half from the floor, shooting just 5-33 (15.2%) and went 2-13 (15.4%) from the three point arc.

Franklin Pierce continued on the offensive in the second half to take a 42-19 lead with 16:16 to go.  DC was able to cut the deficit to 12 points (32-44) on a layup from senior guard Rachelle Sainten (Spring Valley, NY) with 9:18 left in the contest, but the Ravens went on a 6-0 spurt to extend their lead to 50-32 and never looked back en route to the 66-44 victory.

Sainten led the Lady Chargers with 10 points on the night and a game leading seven rebounds.  Fellow senior Adele Laskowski (Wayne, NJ) scored eight points and six rebounds in the loss.

With the victory FPU improves to 9-0 overall, while the Lady Chargers drop to 6-4 on the season.

Dominican is back in action tomorrow when they take on host Saint Anselm College at 7pm in the Saint Anselm Holiday Classic.