Sacramento State

SACRAMENTO -- Three Hornets registered double-figure kills - Keonahi'ilani Solaita (12), Victoria Marthaler (10) and Mia Molnar (10) - to lead Sacramento State to a three-set sweep of California Baptist, 25-12, 25-18, 25-23.

Tonight marked the first-ever Big West Conference match (and win) for the Hornets who recently joined the Big West after spending 30 years in the Big Sky Conference. Tonight also marked the first Big West match for California Baptist as the Hornets, Lancers and Utah Valley are all newcomers to the league.

Sacramento State (6-6, 1-0) improved to 4-0 at home, and tonight marked the first leg of a season-long four match homestand. The Hornets have now won 14 of their last 15 matches in the Nest dating back to last season. Sacramento State played just its third three-set match of the season, and the team is now 2-1 in sweeps.

Tonight also marked the first-ever meeting against California Baptist, who moved from the WAC to the Big West. The Lancers dropped to 3-9 overall and 0-1 in league play.

The only real drama came in the final set when the Hornets trailed, 23-22. However, Sacramento State ripped off three straight points on back-to-back Molnar kills followed by a Skyler Gartin ace. The Hornets had 11.0 team blocks and 17 more kills than the Lancers (47-30). 

Molnar had a big match - a season-high .500 hitting percentage (10-2-16) accompanied her 10 kills. Solaita also hit a season high (.385), posted a career-high four blocks, had a season-high tying two aces, and now has 10+ kills in five of her last seven matches. Marthaler has now tallied double-digit kills in 31 straight matches dating back to last season and her 10 kills accompanied three aces and eight digs. 

Setter Makenna Wiepert had another big match finishing with four kills, a .571 hitting percentage, 31 assists, three aces, five digs and a career-high tying four blocks. Freshman Nikola Gamlin had six kills, a .600 hitting percentage, three blocks, and has now hit better than .550 in each of her last three matches. In the process, Gamlin lifted her season hitting percentage to .397.

Libero Reese Ampi had a match-high 12 digs, Amy Ito five digs, and Kaylee Piepho had three assists. 

The Hornets return to action Saturday afternoon when they host UC Riverside at 1 p.m. Originally, that match was scheduled for 7 p.m., but was moved ahead to a 1 p.m. start. The homestand concludes next week with matchups vs. Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara.

NOTES
• Ampi now has 969 career digs as she nears the 1,000 milestone
• Marthaler has 824 career kills (758 in a Hornet uniform in just 42 matches)
• Wiepert improved her career assist total to 1,245