SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Sacramento State had a match point at 15-14 of the fifth set, but Cal finished on a 3-0 run to defeat the Hornets, 3-2 (25-23, 23-25, 19-25, 25-16, 17-15), on Saturday afternoon at Spartan Gym.
The match was the second and final of the Battle of NorCal for the Hornets, who defeated San Jose State yesterday in four sets. Had the Hornets won today's match, it would have been the program's first victory over a team that was an ACC member at the time of the match since 1995.
Sacramento State (5-6) has now played six 5-setters in its first 11 matches of the season. Today was the non-conference finale as the Hornets will turn their attention to Big West play next week at home. In fact, each of the team's first four Big West matches will come at home as Sacramento State enters its first year in the conference.
The Hornets were very close to picking up their second win over a Power Four school this season (Texas Tech of the Big 12). Sacramento State jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the fifth and neither team led by more than two points the entire set. Five different Hornets had kills in the fifth frame, including four from
Victoria Marthaler and three from
Keonahi'ilani Solaita.
The Hornets, who lost for the first time this season after holding a 2-1 sets lead, had 12 more kills (70-58) than Cal and four more digs (72-68). The Bears outblocked the Hornets, 10.0-7.0, and took advantage of the Hornets' season-high 16 service errors (5 aces).Â
Four Sacramento State players had double figures in kills, led by Marthaler's match-high 19. The junior also posted her fourth double-double with 10 digs. Freshman
Nikola Gamlin posted 11 kills and a .556 hitting percentage. Coupled with her big performance yesterday, the middle blocker finished the tournament with 23 kills and a .688 hitting percentage.
Solaita had a season-high 15 kills to go with nine digs, and freshman
Mia Molnar a season-high tying 11 kills to go with a team-best four blocks. Setter
Makenna Wiepert posted career highs in assists (48), digs (23) and kills (6) while hitting .667 (6-0-9). Middle
Skyler Gartin had eight kills and three blocks, libero
Reese Ampi had 15 digs, and
Amy Ito nine digs and two aces.
Next week, Sacramento State will host Big West foes Cal Baptist on Thursday at 7 p.m., and UC Riverside on Saturday at 1 p.m. Originally, the UC Riverside start time was 7 p.m., but was moved back to a 1 p.m. start.
