The Sacramento State volleyball team opened Big Sky Conference play 1-1 on the road last weekend.

Sac State won its Big Sky opener Friday night, defeating Idaho State University in five games, 29-31, 27-30, 30-16, 30-15, and 16-14. The win marked its first five-game victory of the season and their ninth straight win over the Bengals in the last five years.

The Hornets got of to a slow start, committing a number of attack errors and dropped the first two games of the match before picking up their play.

Head coach Debby Colberg blamed the miscues on some nervousness.

“I sensed some uneasiness with the team and the extra nerves always cause ball control problems,” Colberg said.

“During the intermissions between games, we focused on one thing, ball control. I was really pleased with the way we responded being down 0-2. We really smoked them in games three and four and pulled out a tough win in game five.”

Alison Gahr led the Hornets’ resurgence totaling 18 kills for the match, hitting .515 and committing just one attack error in 33 attempts.

“She was outstanding,” Colberg said. “I was concerned a bit because she does have some tendonitis in her knees, but she did play strong throughout the match.”

Setter Lisa Beauchene recorded her third triple-double of the season totaling 10 kills, 50 assists and 14 digs. Beauchene is the only Div. I player in the nation with three triple-doubles.

Junior Jayme Wright added 16 kills and Senior Kelly Voeltz recorded her second double-double of the season with 12 kills and a match high 18 digs.

On Saturday, the Hornets traveled to Weber State University and lost to the Wildcats in four games, 25-30, 30-28, 30-25, and 30-19.

The Hornets were held to a season low .036 hitting percentage, as they never hit above .125 in any game.

“Offensively, we really struggled and some of that credit goes to Weber State,” Colberg said.

“They’re an excellent blocking team and we got a little intimidated when we saw how good they were at the net.”

Colberg also felt that fatigue might have been a factor as well, causing some ill-advised shots and suspect play at the net. The Hornets committed season high 48 attack errors and just 55 kills in 196 chances.

“We went after shots we normally do not try, shots that are very uncharacteristic for our team,” Colberg said. “When you get tired, you tend to deviate from the basic fundamentals of the game and I think that’s what happened.”

Senior Kelley Voeltz led Sac State with 15 kills and added 11 digs as the loss dropped the Hornets to 1-1 in conference play and 7-4 overall.

Tonight the Hornets will travel to Stockton to take on the high-powered University of Pacific Tigers at 7 p.m. Pacific is currently ranked seventh in the nation.Colberg believes the match will serve as a stern test for Sac State.

“We will have to play better than we did last weekend and I think we will. This is a step up in competition so I’m looking forward to see how we respond.”

The Hornets next Big Sky match comes against Northern Arizona University at home on Saturday.

The match is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.