The Dominican Penguins are the athletics teams that represent

Dominican University of California Dominican University of California is a private university in San Rafael, California. It was founded in 1890 as Dominican College by the Dominican Sisters of San Rafael. It is one of the oldest universities in California. Dominican is accredite ...

, located in

San Rafael, California San Rafael ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for "Raphael (archangel), St. Raphael", ) is a city and the county seat of Marin County, California, Marin County, California, United States. The city is located in the North Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), ...

, in intercollegiate sports as a member of the Division II level of the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

(NCAA), primarily competing in the Pacific West Conference as a provisional member for most of their sports since the 2009–10 academic year (achieving D-II full member status in 2011–12); while its men's lacrosse team competes in the

Western Collegiate Lacrosse League The Western Collegiate Lacrosse League (WCLL) is a conference that participates in the Men's Collegiate Lacrosse Association (MCLA). The WCLL operates in California, Nevada, and Oregon and is split into two divisions, Division I and Division II ...

(WCLL) at the Division I level of the

Men's Collegiate Lacrosse Association The Men's Collegiate Lacrosse Association (MCLA) is a national organization of non-NCAA men's college lacrosse programs. The MCLA oversees game play and conducts national championships for over 200 teams in ten conferences throughout the United S ...

(MCLA). The Penguins previously competed in the California Pacific Conference (Cal Pac) of the

National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) established in 1940, is a college athletics association for colleges and universities in North America. Most colleges and universities in the NAIA offer athletic scholarships to its stu ...

(NAIA) from 1996–97 to 2008–09.

Varsity teams

Dominican competes in 15 intercollegiate varsity sports: Men's sports include basketball, cross country, golf, lacrosse, soccer and track & field; while women's sports include basketball, cross country, golf, lacrosse, soccer, softball, tennis, track & field and volleyball.

Facilities

The Conlan Center opened in 2000 and is home to the Dominican

Volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

and

Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

teams. It also features a swimming pool, weight room, office, and other athletics facilities. The John F. Allen Athletics Complex opened in 2012 and boasts Kennelly Field and the Castellucci Family

Tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

Center. In 2015, the construction of Penguin Field provided an on-campus home to the

Softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

team for the first time and completed the John F. Allen Athletics Complex.

History

In 2008 Dominican began a transition to

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is an intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environmen ...

membership and in 2009 joined the Pacific West Conference. The move put the Penguins in the same conference as fellow Bay Area rivals Notre Dame de Namur University and the Academy of Art University. Dominican men's golf became the first team to reach a regional with the 2015 NCAA Division II Men's Golf Championships. The Penguins finished in eighth place out of 20 teams and missed the national tournament by six strokes. Dominican's student-athletes won the PacWest's "Community Engagement Award" for their community service initiatives in 2009. Dominican earned the PacWest Academic Achievement Award for six consecutive seasons (2009–2015) for achieving the highest overall student-athlete GPA of all schools in the Pacific West Conference. Prior to becoming a member of the NCAA, Dominican was a member of NAIA Division II. The Penguins won four consecutive California Pacific Conference men's basketball championships from 2003 to 2006, then again in 2008. Men's basketball also reached the

NAIA Championships Naia or NAIA may refer to: Sports * National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics * NAIA Softball Championship * NAIA Volleyball Championship * NAIA World Series * NAIA Wrestling Championship * NAIA lacrosse Other * Naia (skeleton), a Paleoa ...

four consecutive years from 2003 to 2006 and advanced to the Sweet 16 in 2005. Women's basketball reached the Sweet 16 in 2004 and also qualified for the tournament the following season. Women's basketball was the National Small College Runner-up in 1995–96.

Mascot

Chilly the Mascot is the Penguins' mascot and has seen several costumed iterations, from inflatable to sporting a top hat to his current "buff" state. The Dominican mascot has been the Penguins since the student body voted to change the school's nickname to honor the Dominican Sisters in the mid-1970s. Chilly was named the Mascot of the Month in May 2015 by mascots.com.

Men's lacrosse

Dominican also sponsors Men's

Lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensively ...

, which plays in the

Division I. Previously, the Penguins participated in the NCAA Division II and were a founding member of the Western Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association, the first association west of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

. Dominican won the WILA in 2013 and 2014 before transitioning to the MCLA for the 2015 season.

References

External links

* {{Pacific West Conference navbox