SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Senior outside hitters Sloan Lovett (17 kills, .419) and Lauren Kissell (13 kills, .355) both had big performances in a Senior Night sweep of Idaho State (25-20, 25-17, 25-21) in a Big Sky Conference volleyball matchup Saturday evening at Colberg Court.

The victory propelled Sacramento State (24-5, 11-3) into a second-place tie in the Big Sky's South Division with Idaho State (19-9, 11-3). Only two regular season matches remain and both Idaho State and Sacramento State continue to chase Northern Arizona (13-1), which defeated Southern Utah in four sets tonight. The winner of the regular season title hosts the eight-team Big Sky Tournament Nov. 19-21.

The Hornets, who now own the tiebreaker over Idaho State, can only win the Big Sky's regular season championship if they win both their matches next week and Northern Arizona loses both its matches. Sacramento State will play at Northern Arizona on Thursday. NAU's lone conference loss came against the Hornets in Sacramento on Sept. 26.

The Hornets have now won eight straight matches, the team is 11-1 at home and they conclude the home portion of the schedule with a perfect 8-0 record against league opposition inside the Nest. After Thursday's matchup at Northern Arizona, Sacramento State concludes the regular season on Saturday at Southern Utah. If the season ended today, the Hornets would be the No. 3 seed for the tournament (the winner of the North Division gets the No. 2 seed).

The Hornets have not lost since Oct. 10, and the team's 24-5 record is tied for the best mark after 29 matches in the last 20 years. The 2006 squad also had a 24-5 record, and the 1995 team was 26-3.

Tonight marked the final time the Hornets will play at home in 2015 unless they host the Big Sky Tournament, and prior to the match, seniors Lauren Aikels, Lovett and Kissell were honored for their contributions to the program.

Sacramento State played very well against an Idaho State team that had won 13 of its last 15 matches, and the Hornets avenged their four-set loss to the Bengals earlier this year in Pocatello. In addition, Sacramento State snapped an eight-match losing streak against Idaho State that dated back to 2011.

The Hornets dominated the match statistically, holding substantial advantages in kills (48-28), hitting percentage (.319-.125), assists (43-28), aces (9-6) and blocks (6.0-3.0). Of Sacramento State's nine aces, two came from Kennedy Kurtz, and three came from both Lexie Skalbeck and Madeline Cannon. During a 20-9 run to close the second set, Kurtz served out seven straight points, which included aces on back-to-back points.

Lovett set a tone early by recording kills in each of the first three points of the match, and the senior finished with 17 kills and a season-high .419 hitting percentage. She had seven kills in the first set, seven more in the second, and three in the third while finishing with a robust 5.67 kills per set. Kissell had 13 kills and hit .355 while raising her season hitting percentage to .321, a ridiculously large mark for a true outside hitter.

The trio of Lovett, Kissell and Morgan Stanley (nine kills, .273) combined for 39 of the Hornets' 48 kills. Cannon had four kills, three blocks and three aces, true freshman Brie Gathright had four kills, three blocks and a .333 hitting percentage and Kurtz finished with 39 assists and five digs. Skalbeck led all players with 16 digs to go along with her match-high tying three aces. Julia Wright added eight digs.

"From the service line, not only did we get a bunch of aces, but I thought we really threw them out of their offense and kept their middle blockers from getting involved," Sacramento State head coach Ruben Volta said. "We attacked well, and Sloan was so aggressive tonight and really set the pace with three straight kills to start the match. Lauren (Kissell) and Maddie (Cannon) provided a lot of offense as well, Morgan (Stanley) continued to be solid, and we played well in so many areas.

"Defensively, we were sound with Lexie (Skalbeck) getting a bunch of digs again tonight. After tonight's match, I told our players how happy I was with their sustained effort for three straight sets against a very good team."

Tressa Lyman (10) was the only Idaho State player with more than seven kills, as the Bengals finished with just 28 kills and 16 errors in 96 total attacks. Chloe Hirst had a team-high 14 digs and Makenzie Filer had seven kills and a team-high .353 hitting percentage.