The Week Ahead

• Sacramento State (0-3) enters its second week of the 2025 season, and will travel to Utah for three matches on Friday and Saturday.
• The Hornets will begin on Friday where they will play two matches in Cedar City in a tournament hosted by Southern Utah. There, Sacramento State will play UC Riverside at 11 a.m. PT, followed by a matchup against Southern Utah at 5 p.m. PT.
• Sacramento State will then make the one-hour drive to St. George where it will take on Utah Tech on Saturday at 1 p.m. PT.
• This will mark the first of two trips to Utah for the Hornets, as the team will make the trek to Ogden, Utah, in early November for a conference matchup at Weber State.
• Sacramento State, which has seven new players (including six freshmen) from last season's Big Sky Tournament championship team, opened the season last week with a tough home tournament.
• The Hornets dropped matches to UTEP (#43), Pepperdine (#53) and UC Davis (#85) - teams that all finished last season among the top 90 teams in the country in the final RPI report.
• After being swept by both UTEP and UC Davis, the Hornets fell in five sets Sunday to a Pepperdine team that, two days later, beat 19th-ranked UCLA on Tuesday in four sets.
• This week's opponents have a combined 3-6 record after the first week of the season. Utah Tech is 2-1, UC Riverside 1-2, and Southern Utah 0-3.
• Utah Tech had an impressive opening week, going 2-1 in Las Vegas which included sweeps of both UNLV and CSU Bakersfield. Their only loss came in five sets to Iowa (15-11 in the fifth).
• UC Riverside went 1-2 in Orlando, Fla., with all three matches resulting in three-set sweeps. That included a win over Norfolk State, and losses to Chattanooga and host Centra Florida.
• Southern Utah went 0-3 at a tournament in Ogden, Utah. One of those losses was to tournament host, and a Big Sky Conference rival of the Hornets, Weber State by a 3-0 score (25-8, 25-16, 25-14).
• Sacramento State is 9-6 all-time vs. UC Riverside, including a 6-4 record when playing on a neutral floor. The Hornets have won three of the last four meetings (last was a 3-1 win on Sept. 8, 2018).
• The Hornets are 12-5 vs. Southern Utah, including 5-3 in Cedar City. Sacramento State and the Thunderbirds played every season when Southern Utah was a Big Sky member from 2012-19. The Hornets have won two straight with each outcome resulting in a 3-0 sweep (last match was at home in 2021).
• The Hornets have never played Utah Tech. Formerly Dixie State until 2022, Utah Tech made the transition from Div. II to Div. I by joining the Western Athletic Conference in 2020 (full Div. I status in 2024).

Multimedia Options

• Two of the Hornets' three matches this week will stream on ESPN+
• The team's games at Southern Utah on Friday, and Utah Tech on Saturday, will both be streamed live on ESPN+
• The only match that will not have a video stream is Friday morning vs. UC Riverside.
• Like every match this season, live stats will be offered for all three contests.
• Games on ESPN+ can be found on watchespn.com and the ESPN app.
• Multimedia links can be found next to each match on the volleyball schedule at hornetsports.com.

Wrapping Up The 2024 Season

• The Hornets are coming off a season in which the team won the Big Sky Conference Tournament title and advanced to the NCAA Tournament. Sacramento State, which finished 21-12 overall and 11-5 in league, has won at least 10 conference matches five straight, and nine of the last 10 years.
• The Hornets hosted last year's Big Sky Tournament (after winning the regular season title in 2023), and defeated Portland State (3-1), Idaho State (3-0) and Northern Colorado (3-2) to win the title. In the championship match, the Hornets overcame a 2-1 sets deficit in front of the home crowd.
• The Hornets feature nine returners, and four starters - middle blockers Karlie Spohn and Ashlynn Archer, setter Kate Doorn and libero Reese Ampi. Spohn (26) shared the starting duties with Skyler Gartin (10) at one middle blocker spot, while Archer started 30 times at the position.
• The team did lose three starters to graduation, all of which were all-conference selections a year ago, including Bridgette Smith (1st team), Caitlin Volkmann (1st team) and Ellie Tisko (2nd team). Smith, the Big Sky MVP and an All-American in 2023, owns the second most kills (1,829) in program history while Volkmann has the sixth most kills (1,457).

Final Season In The Big Sky

• This year marks the Hornets' 30th in the Big Sky Conference (1996-pres.), but will also serve as the team's last. In June, Sacramento State announced that it will join the Big West Conference as a full member beginning in the 2026-27 academic year. 
• In 2026, the Hornets will join a Big West lineup that includes California Baptist, Cal Poly, Cal State Bakersfield, Cal State Fullerton, Long Beach State, CSUN, UC Irvine, UC Riverside, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, and Utah Valley.
• During the Hornets' stay in the Big Sky, the program has won 14 regular season and/or tournament championships.

Archer Off To A Big Start

• Middle blocker Ashlynn Archer got off to a nice start during the first week of her senior season.
• She was the Hornets' lone representative on the Sacramento State Invitational all-tournament team after averaging 2.27 kills and 1.00 blocks per set while hitting .391.
• She hit at least .300 in every match, including a career-high 14 kills to go with seven blocks and a .458 hitting percentage against Pepperdine.
• Last season, Archer started 30 matches, and finished with 1.64 kps, 0.92 bps and a .317 hitting percentage. It was her solo block on match point that clinched the Hornets' Big Sky Tourney crown.

Doorn Named Preseason All-Big Sky

• Setter Kate Doorn was named to the preseason all-Big Sky Conference team after helping quarterback a Hornet offense last season that finished first in the Big Sky in assists (12.13 per set), second in kills (13.23 per set) and third in hitting percentage (.232).
• She finished the season with 6.57 assists, 0.35 aces and 1.91 digs per set, and raised those numbers to 7.14 assists and 2.19 digs per set in Big Sky play.
• Doorn ran a 6-2 offense with Hailey Plugge, who has since graduated. This season, the Hornets have run a traditional 5-1 offense, and Doorn is averaging 6.73 assists, 2.09 digs and 0.45 blocks per set.

Notables

Over the last 10 seasons, Sacramento State has combined for a 114-49 conference record (.699 winning percentage), and a 72-12 home record against league foes during that span…that includes at least 10 Big Sky wins in five straight, and nine of the last 10 years…the Hornets have the most freshmen on the roster (6) since the 2022 squad had seven freshmen…that 2022 class included current Hornets Archer, Davis, Guevara, Kadillak and Spohn…Spohn missed last week with injury, and she is questionable to play this week…libero Reese Ampi, who notched 22 digs vs. Pepperdine, is currently second in the Big Sky with an average of 4.36 digs per set.