GREELEY, Colo. – For the second straight night, Sacramento State was pushed to five sets but this time the Hornets could not find the winning formula in a loss at Northern Colorado in the semifinals of the Big Sky Conference Tournament on Tuesday (20-25, 25-18, 21-25, 25-15, 20-18).
 
The teams traded sets with Sacramento State winning the first and third and UNC taking the second and fourth. Once in the fifth set, the Bears turned an 8-7 deficit into a 14-10 lead giving the team four match points.
 
Sacramento State responded with a kill from Victoria Marthaler and then a UNC attack error made it 14-12. After a Northern Colorado timeout, the Hornets pulled within one point on another error and then tied the set, 14-14, on a Marthaler kill. The teams then exchanged points to remain tied at 15-15 and 16-16. A service error by the Bears gave the Hornets their first match points (17-16) only to have Sacramento State serve long. A third-straight service error gave the team a second attempt to close the match but was negated by a kill from Zoe Gibbs.
 
Northern Colorado retook the lead on a kill by Brynn Reines and Gibbs then moved the Bears to the championship for the second year in a row with her eighth kill of the night to make the score 20-18. Tonight's match was the second-highest scoring fifth set in Sacramento State history, trailing only a 23-21 win over Weber State in 2007.
 
Marthaler led all players with 23 kills and had at least 20 kills for the ninth time this season. Middles Skyler Gartin and Ashlynn Archer each had nine kills while Keonahi'ilani Solaita added seven. Gartin also set her career high with nine blocks in the match. Reese Ampi had 26 digs to lead a trio Hornets in double digits.
 
Alayna Tessena and Bella Van Lannen led Northern Colorado with 17 and 16 kills, respectively.
 
With the loss, Sacramento State (20-10) sees its season come to an end. The Hornets were making their 20th appearance in the Big Sky Tournament semifinal round since joining the league in 1996. The No. 2-seed Hornets finished second in the regular season by virtue of its 12-4 conference record. Northern Colorado (16-15), the No. 3 seed, advances to tomorrow's championship match (6 pm PT) where it will face No. 8 Idaho State which eliminated No. 1 Northern Arizona and No. 4 Weber State in five sets in the first two rounds.
 
• Sacramento State's 20 overall wins marks the program's third straight season with at least 20 victories
• The 12-4 conference record was the team's second best in eight years (the 2023 squad went 13-3)
• The Hornets finished 10-4 at home, and 4-0 on neutral floors
• For the first time in program history, the Hornets won four Big Sky individual awards - Victoria Marthaler (MVP), Kate Doorn (Setter of the Year), Reese Ampi (Libero of the Year) and Keonahi'ilani Solaita (Freshman of the Year)
• Prior to this evening, the Hornets had won 11 of their last 12 matches
• The only Big Sky team the Hornets did not beat this season was Northern Colorado (0-3). Sacramento State was 13-2 against every other member of the conference
• The Hornets advanced to the semifinal round after defeating No. 7 Portland State (3-2) yesterday in the quarterfinals
• Tonight was a rematch of last season's Big Sky Tournament Championship which saw the Hornets win in five sets
• Today marked the final matches in the Sacramento State careers of seniors Ashlynn Archer, Greta Davis, Doorn, Mia Guevara, Abbey Kadillak and Karlie Spohn. Archer and Doorn were both first team all-Big Sky selections