Undefeated homestand leaves Sac State 2-0 in conference
October 1, 2002
Perhaps it’s versatility. Perhaps it’s inexperience. Perhaps it’s luck. Perhaps it’s a little of everything that makes watching the Sacramento State women’s volleyball team feel like a roller coaster ride.
Whatever it is, Sac State showed it’s fans every bit of it as they went 3-0 last week at Hornet Gym, knocking off the University of San Francisco, Idaho State, and Weber State. Each of the three wins came in a different fashion. There was a blowout, a nail biter, and a display of mental focus.
On Wednesday, Sac State took on USF. The Dons came into the match with a 4-11 record overall and a three-match losing streak. The Hornets did not prove to be gracious hosts, as they demolished the overmatched visitors, 30-27, 30-20, and 30-25.The Hornets used several scoring runs to put the Dons away, including a 9-2 run in the second game, and an 8-0 run in the third game.
Sophomore outside hitter Sandra Bandimere and junior middle hitter Kazmiera Imrie had double figures in digs. Senior outside hitter Jayme Wright and junior setter Lisa Beauchene had nine digs apiece.
Imrie also had only one error in 18 attempts to go along with a match-high .556 hitting percentage. Wright had only five kills, but reached 1,000 for her career.
Brittanie Buddinger led the Dons with 15 kills to go with eight digs. Jenice Lejeune had nine kills and six digs.
Sac State was back in action the very next night against the Idaho State University Bengals. The match marked the beginning of Big Sky Conference play for the both teams.
The Hornets won the first game 30-24. Bandimere, Imrie and Wright had at least five blocks each. Imrie had a game-high .833 hitting percentage and the Hornets as a team hit a .340 hitting percentage.
The next two games were a different story for Sac State. The team’s hitting percentage dropped to .135 in the second game, and Bandimere, Imrie and Wright tallied only two kills each.
Meanwhile, Idaho State’s Ali Gorny had seven kills. Melanie Tucker and Kellie DeHaas had seven and six digs, respectively, as Idaho State won 30-24.
Idaho State won game three 32-30.
In games four and five, Sac State stepped up their level of play, holding Idaho State to a .030 hitting percentage while raising theirs to a .297 in game four. The Hornets had a 17-9 edge in kills and won the game 30-16.
In the fifth and final game of the match, the hitting disparity continued to show that Sac State had worn down its feisty opponent. Idaho State’s hitting percentage dropped again, to a -.158, while Sac State remained steady at a .294. The Hornets won 15-9.
Bandimere (20 kills, 10 digs) and Beauchene (54 assists, 19 digs) finished with double-doubles.
Imrie and Wright finished with double figure kills while Mallory Hook and sophomore setter Stephanie Gamst also finished with double-figure digs.
“We played erratically,” Colberg said. “That’s just inexperience. We started subbing and Shannon Arts came through with the blocks. We also put Stephanie Gamst in the front row, and it came down to which team was going to make the least amount of errors.”
Bandimere, who was one kill short of tying the career-high she set earlier this season, had a different take on those things.
“It was our energy level,” Bandimere said. “Our energy level was low in the games we lost and we picked it up at the end. We just were not going to lose to them.”
On Saturday, the Weber State University Wildcats came to town looking to get their first win in the Big Sky Conference. Sac State denied them, led by Beauchene’s third triple-double (11 kills, 51 assists, 10 digs) of the season.
The Hornets lost the opening game of the match, 30-28, despite three players having four kills each. After that, they won the next three games to take the match.
“After the first game we got a handle on the serve. We also left Stephanie Gamst in. She has the fundamentals that are such an important part of the game,” Colberg said.
In the fourth game, Sac State went on a 13-3 run to coast to a 30-17 win. Wright finished with 19 kills and six digs. Bandimere finished with 14 kills and Hook finished with 21 digs.
Colberg was pleased with her team’s performance, but acknowledged that the weekend was tough on her nerves.
“It’s sometimes hard to tell what the minimum level is with this team. It can be stressful, but we played about as well (against Weber State) as we have all year,” Colberg said.
Beauchene agreed with her coach.”We’ve reached our peak,” Beauchene said. “At times, we might have tried too hard, or concentrated on the wrong things, but we knew what we had to do and we got it done.”
