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GREELEY, Colo. -- Sacramento State's 2021 spring season came to an end after the Hornets lost in three sets (25-13, 25-20, 25-17) to Northern Arizona in the Big Sky Conference Tournament quarterfinals on Wednesday morning at Bank of Colorado Arena.

The loss ended the season for Sacramento State, which finished with a 10-7 record. The Hornets were the No. 4 seed in the tournament after going 10-6 in conference play. Northern Arizona, the No. 5 seed, improved to 10-5 and will advance to tomorrow's semifinals at 3 p.m. PT. This morning's match marked the first of the three-day Big Sky Tournament.

Despite the loss and the season coming to an end, the future is bright as Sacramento State routinely started three freshmen, and every player on the roster except Paige Swinney is coming back next year. That includes every starter returning. In fact, a freshman led the Hornets in kills in all but one match this season. Of the Hornets' four all-conference players, three were underclassmen - sophomore Caty Cordano, freshmen Bridgette Smith and Kalani Hayes. Smith was the Big Sky's Freshman of the Year.

What makes this morning's match even more frustrating for the Hornets is they split two on the road at Northern Arizona earlier this season. The Sacramento State win (Jan. 25) came in four sets. However, today was much different as the Hornets posted a season-low -.009 hitting percentage while finishing with 27 kills and 28 errors in 107 attacks. In addition, the Hornets were victims of 12 NAU service aces, the most by an opponent this year.

Sacramento State used all 14 players on the roster this morning, and the only players to hit above .000 were Hayes (5 kills, 2 blocks, .300 hitting percentage), freshman Karlee Soderberg (2 kills, 1 block, .333 hitting percentage) and junior setter Ashtin Olin (2 kills, 16 assists, 6 digs, .500 hitting percentage).

The Hornets fell victim to big runs in all three sets as NAU closed the first frame on a 19-5 run, the second set on a 7-2 run, and NAU opened the third frame on an 11-2 spurt.

NAU's offense wasn't prolific (.181 hitting percentage, one more kill than the Hornets), but the Lumberjacks had 12 aces to the Hornets' three, and Sacramento State had 22 unforced attack errors (including 13 in the first set). Sacramento State did have three more digs than NAU (50-47), and both teams had six team blocks.

Freshman Caitlin Volkmann led the team with six kills, while senior Macey Hayden and Hayes had five kills apiece. Cordano had a team-high 19 digs, and Hayden also posted double digits in digs with 10 to go with a pair of aces. Smith, who led or tied for the team lead in kills on 11 occasions this year, finished with four kills, an ace, eight digs and two blocks. Senior Cianna Andrews had two kills and three blocks in her first start of the season after missing the majority of the year with injury.

Today marked the final match in the career of fifth-year senior Paige Swinney, who finished with 909 career digs.