SACRAMENTO -- Sacramento State continued its home dominance of Big Sky Conference teams with a three-set sweep (25-23, 25-15, 25-18) of Idaho State in front of an energetic crowd on Saturday evening at the Nest.
Coupled with Thursday's road win at Idaho, Sacramento State (6-8 overall) is now 2-0 in the Big Sky. The Hornets played in front of 515 fans in tonight's victory, and have now won eight straight home matches over Big Sky competition dating back to last season. All eight of those wins have resulted in three-set sweeps.
Idaho State (9-6, 1-1), which beat Northern Colorado on Thursday, has not been able to figure out the Hornets in Sacramento. The Bengals have dropped nine straight to the Hornets on Colberg Court, the last seven of which have been sweeps.
Sacramento State was only threatened in the first set, and with the score tied at 23-23, an ISU service error followed by an
Ellie Tisko ace gave the Hornets the 25-23 win. Sacramento State outscored Idaho State, 50-33, over the final two sets.
ISU was limited to a .100 hitting percentage as the Hornets had 11.0 blocks and dug 48 balls. Eight different Hornets had blocks, including
Kalani Hayes (6),
Ashtin Olin (4) and
Tiyanane Kamba-Griffin (3).
Sacramento State had eight more kills than ISU (39-31) and five more aces (8-3). Libero
Caty Cordano led all players in both aces (3) and digs (16). Outside hitter
Bridgette Smith was the only Hornet with more than seven kills, and she finished with a match-best 16 as she appears to be fully recovered from an ankle injury suffered a month ago.
Hayes had seven kills, and Kamba-Griffin and
Caitlin Volkmann had six kills. Hayes hit .308 and Kamba-Griffin hit .667 as she had zero errors in nine swings. Olin had 31 assists and seven digs to go with her four blocks.
Greta Davis had a season-high 10 digs.
The Hornets were playing at home for the first time in three weeks as the team wrapped up an eight-match stretch away from home on Thursday. Sacramento State is back on the road next week for games on Thursday at Northern Arizona, and Saturday at Northern Colorado.
