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MISSOULA, Mont. -- For the second straight night, Sacramento State won on the road at Montana in four sets. Tonight, the Hornets, who limited the Grizzlies to a .094 hitting percentage, won by scores of 22-25, 25-23, 25-16, 25-15. Tonight's match was the regular season finale for both teams.

The victory allowed Sacramento State to conclude the regular season with a 10-6 record (all 16 of those matches were in Big Sky Conference play). More importantly, the Hornets will take plenty of momentum into next week's Big Sky Tournament in Greeley, Colo, having won five of their last six matches. That includes wins on consecutive nights in Missoula, a place that has given Sacramento State fits over the last decade.

Sacramento State will assume the No. 4 seed at the Big Sky Tournament and will play No. 5 Northern Arizona (9-5, 9-5) in the quarterfinal round on Wednesday, March 31, at time to be determined. Despite both teams finishing the season four games above .500, Sacramento State gets the higher seed based on tiebreakers agreed upon by the league's coaches before the season began. The Hornets and NAU opened the season by splitting a pair of matches in Flagstaff in late January.

The postseason event is being hosted by Northern Colorado by virtue of the Bears winning the 2019 Big Sky regular season and tournament titles. Eight teams will play in this year's single-elimination tournament which stretches from March 31-April 2.

Weber State is the No. 1 seed, followed by No. 2 Northern Colorado, No. 3 Montana State, No. 4 Sacramento State, No. 5 Northern Arizona, No. 6 Southern Utah, No. 7 Idaho and No. 8 Eastern Washington. The winner of the Big Sky Tournament receives an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament.

The Hornets dominated tonight's match defensively, limiting Montana to .094 hitting percentage, the lowest mark by a Sacramento State opponent this season. The Grizzlies hit .069 in the third set and -.152 in the fourth set. In that fourth frame, Montana had five kills with 12 errors in 46 attacks. Sacramento State hit .218 with 54 kills, seven aces, 64 digs and 9.0 team blocks. Both wins over Montana this week came after the Grizzlies had won the first set. Prior to this week, the Hornets had been 0-6 when dropping the first set of a match.

Sacramento State had a number of players jump off the box score this evening, including middle blockers Kalani Hayes and Cianna Andrews. Hayes had nine kills, a .529 hitting percentage and four blocks while Andrews posted seven kills, four blocks and a .600 hitting percentage. Andrews, a second team all-league selection in 2019, has been injured the majority of the year, and entered tonight with just five kills and one block for the season. However, Andrews appears to now be fully healthy at a very opportune time for the Hornets - nine days away from the Big Sky Tourney.

Setter Ashtin Olin played all six rotations for the second straight evening with the Hornets' other setter, McKenna Smith, out with injury. After having a big day yesterday, Olin was at it again this evening, finishing with four kills, a .500 hitting percentage, 41 assists, one ace, 13 digs and five blocks. In the two wins at Montana, the junior setter averaged 1.25 kills, 11.38 assists, 0.38 aces, 3.25 digs and 1.38 blocks per set. She also hit .421 and accounted for 18.5 points.

Freshman outside hitter Bridgette Smith had 13 kills and 10 digs (sixth double-double of the season) and senior Macey Hayden added nine kills. Freshman Caitlin Volkmann had seven kills, and middle blocker Sarah Falk added four. Libero Caty Cordano had 23 digs, her fifth consecutive match with at least 20 digs. Paige Swinney had eight digs, and Michelle Taynton had three aces in 14 service attempts. Sacramento State used 13 players in tonight's match.

Montana's season comes to an end as the Grizzlies (2-14, 2-14) did not qualify for this year's Big Sky Tournament. Montana, Portland State and Idaho State are the three teams that will not play in next week's postseason event.