SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Junior Lauren Kissell had a season-best 23 kills, but it was not enough as Sacramento State fell at home to Southern Utah, 3-2 (25-23, 25-23, 22-25, 17-25, 15-13) in a Big Sky Conference volleyball match Saturday evening at Colberg Court.

The match was the season finale as Sacramento State finished the year at 8-23 overall and 3-13 in the Big Sky. The Hornets, however, continued to get better as the season progressed as evidence by a 3-5 record over the final eight matches. Of those five losses, four were decided in agonizingly close fashion, including tonight's match.

In a season where the final record wasn't reflective of how the Hornets played, Sacramento State lost a robust five matches that were decided by three points or less in fifth set outcomes, and each of those came in conference play. That deciding fifth set proved to be an Achilles heal all year as the Hornets were just 2-7 overall in five-set matches.

That included a pair of losses to Southern Utah (14-14, 6-10) this season in which the Hornets lost in the fifth set by 15-13 scores. In the teams' other matchup earlier this season in Cedar City, Sacramento State squandered three match points in the fourth set before eventually losing by that 15-13 outcome in the fifth set.

Really, Sacramento State, with a few bounces going its way, could just as easily be preparing for the Big Sky Tournament right now. In fact, there were scenarios where two more wins this year could have gotten the Hornets into the league's postseason event. Instead, Sacramento State, the youngest team in the league with nary a senior on the roster, sees a season filled with ridiculously closes losses come to an end. All 16 players on the Hornets' roster will return next season.

"I'm really excited to have the whole team back next year, and we learned some valuable lessons the hard way being involved in so many close matches that resulted in a loss," Sacramento State head coach Ruben Volta said. "There is no substitute for experience, and we have a lot of it coming back next year. I just told my team at the end of tonight's match....we all feel like we didn't have that good a season with the losses, but to be honest, only a few points separated us from qualifying for the Big Sky Tournament.

"I'm proud of how much we improved in certain areas as the season progressed. The one that stands out for me is defense. We were so poor defensively at the beginning of the year and improved immensely in that regard. Our setting improved as the year went on, and serve receive got better as well. It gave us a little trouble tonight, but I wasn't nervous about our serve receive the last several weeks of the year."

Tonight's match was as close as it gets. In fact, Southern Utah won all three of its victorious sets by just two points. Sacramento State actually outscored the Thunderbirds by five points overall tonight. In fact, the Hornets dominated the match statistically, recording more kills (70-55), assists (66-52), digs (85-79), team blocks (12.0-11.0) and a better hitting percentage (.235-.205) than the Thunderbirds. The one area that Southern Utah dominated was serving as the T-Birds had 12 aces compared to just four for Sacramento State.

Possibly what stings the most about tonight's loss is the Hornets had 3-0 and 7-3 leads in the fifth set, but let those advantages slip away.

Kissell, who missed the first 22 matches of the season, had 23 kills, five digs and a .267 hitting percentage. Her previous season high for kills was 12, which she set on a pair of occasions. Joining Kissell with double-figure kills for the Hornets were Sloan Lovett (18 kills, four digs) and Morgan Stanley (15 kills, 15 digs, five blocks, and a .290 hitting percentage). Madeline Cannon chipped in seven kills and four blocks, and Kennedy Kurtz had 59 assists, 15 digs and four blocks.

Four different Hornets had at least four blocks, including Courtney Dietrich (five). Kendall LaVine finished with four kills, two blocks and a .667 hitting percentage. Libero Lexie Skalbeck continued her impressive end to the season with a match-best 26 digs. Skalbeck had at least 20 digs in five of her last six matches, and averaged 5.38 digs per set over that span. Hannah Meadows added a season-high tying 10 digs to round out the four Sacramento State players with double digits in digs.

For Southern Utah, Ann Clappier led the way with 14 kills, four blocks and a .542 hitting percentage while Remo Gaogao chipped in 18 kills and 19 digs.

Sacramento State's roster this season featured three juniors, five sophomores and a school-record eight freshmen and every player will be back next year.