SACRAMENTO -- Four Hornets had at least nine kills, led by
Victoria Marthaler's match-best 18, and Sacramento State cruised to a 3-1 victory (25-15, 25-16, 21-25, 25-19) over Cal State Fullerton on Thursday at the Nest.
Coupled with last week's road wins, Sacramento State (10-8, 5-2) has now won three straight. Tonight was the beginning of a three-match homestand, and the Hornets are in a two-way tie for second place in the Big West standings with Long Beach State. Sacramento State will host the Beach in two days.
Cal State Fullerton, which was coming off a five-set win over UC Santa Barbara, dropped to 6-14 and 1-6 in league. The Hornets have defeated the Titans on five straight occasions, and Cal State Fullerton does not have a win in the series since 1986 when the Hornets were a Div. II program (the Hornets joined the Div. I ranks in 1991).
The Hornets moved their record to 6-2 at home, and the team has just four matches left in the Nest this season. Sacramento State is playing seven of its first nine Big West contests at home, but will play seven of its final nine on the road.
Sacramento State had a season-high 15 aces, including multiple aces from five different players -
Skyler Gartin (4),
Amy Ito (3),
Makenna Wiepert (3),
Reese Ampi (2) and
Keonahi'ilani Solaita (2). The Hornets also had 22 more kills than the Titans (56-34) and 16 more digs (58-42). Twenty of those digs came from libero
Reese Ampi who posted her 14th career match with 20+ digs.
Wiepert set an offense that hit .267 and she finished with a career-high 49 assists to go with three kills, a .600 hitting percentage, six digs and two blocks. Marthaler's 18 kills were eight more than any other player on the floor, and Gartin had a huge match. Gartin, a junior middle blocker, finished with 10 kills, a .643 hitting percentage, five digs and four blocks to go with her four aces.
Solaita narrowly missed a double-double with nine kills and 10 digs, and
Mia Molnar posted nine kills and four blocks.
Nikola Gamlin had five kills and a team-best five blocks, and
Amy Ito posted 11 digs. Ito has double-figure digs in three straight matches.
Sacramento State's match on Saturday will begin at noon. There are four Sacramento State sports playing on campus Saturday, including women's soccer (1 p.m.), men's soccer (4 p.m.) and football (7 p.m.).
NOTABLES
• Marthaler went over 900 career kills tonight and the junior outside hitter now has 916
• Wiepert continues to close in on 1,500 career assists, and now has 1,461
• Gartin (.463) and Gamlin (.411) are both hitting over .400 in Big West play
