MISSOULA, Mont. -- Sacramento State claimed the Big Sky Conference regular season championship outright with a hard fought 3-2 victory (24-26, 25-22, 24-26, 25-15, 15-13) at Montana on Saturday evening.

The Hornets, who had already clinched at least a share of the Big Sky regular season title, won the championship outright with today's win on the final day of the regular season. Sacramento State (20-10, 13-3) finishes the season all alone in first place, and will be the No. 1 seed at next week's Big Sky Tournament in Greeley, Colo. (Nov. 22-24).

In addition, by virtue of finishing as the No. 1 seed, Sacramento State will host next year's Big Sky Tournament. The Big Sky regular season title is the first for the program since 2017, and the 10th since joining the league in 1996. The Hornets will now turn their attention to next week's Big Sky Tourney and attempting to claim the league's automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament.

Sacramento State will open the single elimination tournament on Wednesday in the quarterfinal round vs. No. 8 seed Idaho State at noon PT. The winner of that match will play in Thursday's semis at 3 p.m. PT vs. the winner of Portland State/Weber State. The championship is Friday at 6 p.m. PT. All matches will be played on Northern Colorado's home floor. The winner of Friday's match receives an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament. The Hornets are seeking their first NCAA berth since 2007.

In today's fifth set, Sacramento State used an early 4-0 run to take a 4-1 lead. Montana would come back to tie the score on three occasions in the fifth, but could never get over the hump. The match ended on a combo block from Tiyanane Kamba-Griffin and Karlee Soderberg, setting off a celebration on the court, and later in the locker room.

Rightside hitter Caitlin Volkmann was on fire in the fifth, finishing the set with five kills in six swings, good for an .833 hitting percentage. Volkmann accounted for half of the Hornets' kills in the set, and had just two kills fewer than the entire Montana team.

Sacramento State finished with a .299 hitting percentage and 14.0 team blocks. None bigger than the combo stuff on match point. The Hornets were led by Kalani Hayes' career-high tying 14 kills to go along with a .407 hitting percentage and seven blocks. Kamba-Griffin set a new career best with 13 kills to go with a .409 hitting percentage. Together, the Hornet middles combined for 27 kills, 14 blocks and a .408 hitting percentage.

Bridgette Smith had 13 kills, nine digs and three blocks, and Volkmann, a right side, finished with 13 kills and a .440 hitting percentage. Soderberg, also a right side, had a big match with five kills, four blocks and a .455 hitting percentage. Ellie Tisko had nine kills, two aces, six digs and two blocks, and libero Caty Cordano led all players with 21 digs.

Setter Hailey Plugge had 26 assists, four aces and eight digs, and setter Kate Doorn finished with 28 assists and four digs. The four aces for Plugge were a career best.