BUIES CREEK, N.C. -- Sacramento State limited Norfolk State to a negative hitting percentage (-.021) as the Hornets cruised to a three-set sweep (25-11, 25-14, 25-23) of the Spartans in the first round of the Holly Springs Volleyball Invitational on Friday at Gore Arena.

The match was the first for both teams at the two-day, four-team tournament, and the Hornets return to action tomorrow to face both UNC Wilmington (7 a.m. PDT) and host Campbell (4 p.m. PDT). Sacramento State is playing all three tournament opponents for the first time in school history.

The victory allowed the Hornets to win their third straight while improving to 4-1 this season. Norfolk State dropped to 0-4 with the loss. Sacramento State's other three victories this season came against Rutgers, San Jose State and CSU Bakersfield.

In a match which lasted just an hour and 17 minutes, the Hornets held Norfolk State to 26 kills and 28 errors in 97 total attacks. Despite the match lasting just three sets, Sacramento State had 10.0 team blocks and six different Hornets recorded blocks. That included three from Courtney Dietrich, Madeline Cannon, Brie Gathright and Lauren Kissell. Gathright and Dietrich had a pair of solo blocks.

The Spartans hit -.158, -.065 and .064, respectively, in the first through the third sets. After winning the first two sets handily, Sacramento State overcame a 23-20 deficit in the third frame by winning five straight points to end the match. Of Norfolk State's eight players that appeared in the match, three hit for negative percentages, and only one hit better than .103.

The Hornets finished with 28 kills, 24 assists and 35 digs in a match that did not include many long rallies. In fact, 10 of the team's points came on service aces, including four from Sloan Lovett, three from Kennedy Kurtz and two from Morgan Stanley.

Both Lovett (six kills, .357 hitting percentage) and Stanley (six kills, seven digs) led the team in the kills department while Kissell added five kills and a .417 hitting percentage. Dietrich finished with four kills, three blocks and a perfect 1.000 hitting percentage. Lexie Skalbeck had a team-high nine digs and Kurtz had six digs.

Norfolk State received team highs in kills (9) and digs (12) from Angie Darcus while setter Darcy Moore had three kills, 19 assists, four digs and a .250 hitting percentage. The Spartans finished with just one team block.

Sacramento State finished the match with a .241 hitting percentage.

NOTES -- Both Lana Brown and Brigitte Murdock made their first appearances of the season in today's match. Both players had missed the first four matches of the year with knee injuries.