SACRAMENTO -- Sacramento State lost at home to a Big Sky Conference opponent for the first time in over a calendar year in a 3-1 loss (25-15, 25-11, 16-25, 26-24) to Northern Colorado on Thursday evening inside the Nest.

The two teams entered tonight's match in a tie for third place, and Northern Colorado (13-8, 7-3) takes over sole possession of that spot over Sacramento State (10-12, 6-4). The Bears won their fifth straight match and own the conference's second longest active winning streak.

The Hornets had their 10-match home winning streak vs. Big Sky teams snapped. Sacramento State had not lost at home to a conference foe since Oct. 7 of last season (Northern Arizona). Tonight marked the beginning of a stretch that will see the Hornets play five of their final seven regular season matches inside the Nest.

Northern Colorado swept the season series over the Hornets as the Bears won earlier this year in Greeley in four sets.

Hornet senior setter Ashtin Olin notched her 4,000th career assist tonight, becoming just the seventh player in program history to achieve the milestone.

Sacramento State got off to an extremely slow start, combining for just 11 kills in the first two sets, and finished the match hitting just .133. Meanwhile, Northern Colorado hit .230 and finished with nearly 20 more kills than the Hornets (55-36). Still, Sacramento State had a glorious opportunity to send this match into a fifth set, but saw the Bears close the fourth frame on a 14-5 run to overcome a 19-12 deficit.

The Hornets finished with 14.0 team blocks (Northern Colorado had just 2.0), which tied for the third highest output of the season for Sacramento State. Six different Hornets had multiple blocks, led by middle blockers Tiyanane Kamba-Griffin (7) and Kalani Hayes (6).

Caitlin Volkmann led the Hornets with 12 kills as she also hit .286 with six digs, four blocks and a pair of aces. Ellie Tisko had nine kills, two aces and six digs, and Bridgette Smith finished with six kills, four digs and three blocks. The six kills were tied for the lowest output in any match for Smith this season when playing outside hitter.

For the second straight match, Abbey Kadillak played at libero for the injured Caty Cordano, and finished with a team-best 17 digs. Olin posted three kills, 29 assists, 11 digs and four blocks.

The Hornets return to action on Saturday when they host Northern Arizona at 1 p.m. That match is the first of a tripleheader on campus that will see Men's Soccer play at 3 p.m., and Football hosts its Homecoming game at 6 p.m.