SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Sacramento State saw its 12-match winning streak come to an end in a tightly contested 3-1 loss to Santa Clara (25-21, 25-23, 18-25, 25-22) in the third and final round of the 13th-annual Sacramento State Volleyball Invitational Saturday evening at the Nest.

Tonight shaped out to be the tournament championship match as both the Hornets and Santa Clara (9-3) were victorious in their first two contests of the two-day, four-team event. The Broncos finished the tournament with a 3-0 record while Sacramento State was 2-1, Kent State 1-2 and Nevada 0-3.

The Hornets also saw their 12-match winning streak come to an end. The run stretched all the way from a victory at San Jose State on Aug. 29 to this afternoon's 3-1 win over Kent State. Amazingly, the winning streak, which was the longest since 2007, did not contain one five-set match as the Hornets won each contest in three or four sets.

Still, the Hornets are 13-2, their best start after 15 matches since the 1995 squad was 14-1. Sacramento State outside hitter Lauren Kissell and setter Kennedy Kurtz were both named to the all-tournament team. Kissell, a senior, finished the tournament averaging 4.83 kills per set to go along with a .412 hitting percentage. Kurtz, a sophomore, averaged 12.75 assists and 2.50 digs per set while hitting .600 (6-0-10).

In a match that really could have gone either way, the Hornets had more kills (60-58), assists (57-52) and digs (64-60) than Santa Clara while both teams hit for nearly identical percentages (SCU .253, SAC .252). The Broncos, however, had more team blocks (14.0-6.0) and consistently won the tight, late-set points. All 14 of those Bronco blocks came during the final three sets as Santa Clara did not register a block during the first frame.

Sacramento State trailed just 23-21 in the first set, had the second set tied at 23-23, and trailed, 23-22, in the fourth set before losing each of those frames. The only set that wasn't close turned out to be the third when the Hornets won handily, 25-18.

"We played very hard tonight against a very good opponent," Sacramento State head coach Ruben Volta said. "Even when we fell behind a decent amount of points, we kept fighting. I was happy with our defense, I thought we served well, and we did a nice job with our attack. It was a very good offensive game, and a few plays of execution provided the difference.

"Kennedy (Kurtz) had a very good weekend and hustled down a lot of balls, Lauren (Kissell) was unstoppable on the outside, and I thought Maddie (Cannon) had an excellent tournament."

Cannon, who was named tournament MVP last weekend, could have just as easily been named all-tournament again this week. She finished the tourney with averages of 2.50 kills and 0.50 blocks per set while hitting .359.

In tonight's match, Kissell led all players with 21 kills while also finishing with a .439 hitting percentage. The outside hitter had just three errors in 41 attacks, and had 10 more kills than any other Sacramento State player. She was joined in double-figure kills by Sloan Lovett (11 kills) and Shannon Boyle (10 kills, eight digs, three blocks). Cannon had eight kills and a block, Courtney Dietrich had four kills and team-high four blocks, and Morgan Stanley had three kills (all out of the back row), 13 digs and a .375 hitting percentage.

Libero Lexie Skalbeck had a match-best 19 digs, and Kurtz finished with three kills, a perfect 1.000 hitting percentage, 46 assists, nine digs, an ace and a block.

For Santa Clara, Nikki Hess, who was named the tournament MVP, finished with 20 kills, 14 digs and five blocks while fellow all-tournament teammates Sabrina Clayton had 17 kills and Kirsten Mead 45 assists and 11 digs.

Tonight marked the final non-conference tuneup for the Big Sky Conference portion of the season as the Hornets open up league play with two home matches next week on Thursday against Southern Utah and Saturday vs. Northern Arizona.

"We've been consistent this season, and I like the way we are playing heading into Big Sky play," Volta said. "We make it tough on our opponents and I really like the fight in this team."

Complete results from all six matches of the tournament

ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Nikki Hess – Santa Clara (MVP)
Kirsten Mead – Santa Clara
Sabrina Clayton – Santa Clara
Lauren Kissell – Sacramento State
Kennedy Kurtz – Sacramento State
Kelsey Bittinger – Kent State
Sommer King - Nevada

FINAL TOURNAMENT RECORDS
Santa Clara  3-0
Sacramento State  2-1
Kent State  1-2
Nevada  0-3