The season came to an end on Friday for the Sacramento State women’s volleyball team. Sac State was defeated by Stanford University in the first round of the Div. I National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament in Palo Alto, Calif.

The Hornets lost the match 3-0, (30-22, 30-8, 30-17) to bring their final season record to 24-11 and dropping their all-time Div. I NCAA tournament record to 1-5.

Stanford led Sac State in almost every category, dominating them in kills (50-31), hitting percentage (.350-.052) and blocks (10.0-1.0). No Hornets reached double figures in kills and only senior outside hitter Jayme Wright recorded double figures in digs, with 14.

“We knew that this would be tough,” Hornet head coach Debby Colberg said. “We knew it would be a challenge. Stanford is one of volleyball’s elite.”

Sac State led the first game 3-1 before two errors and a Stanford ace gave the Cardinal the lead at 4-3. Stanford went on a 10-2 run later in the game to lead 22-13 and eventually take the win.

“We were competitive in the first game,” Colberg said. “But once one person cracked, we were like dominoes. We had some big plays later in the match, but they never led to anything.”

The second game was all Stanford. The Hornets jumped out to a 4-1 lead, but Stanford outplayed them again, going on a 25-1 run of their own. Sac State’s hitting percentage crashed to a miserable -.244, and they committed 15 errors while managing only five kills. “Our passing began to falter in the second game and that just made everything worse,” Colberg said.

Stanford led the third game from wire-to-wire, and while Sac State raised its hitting percentage to .108, while Stanford’s dropped to it’s lowest of the match, at .342.

For Stanford, Logan Tom had a match-high 14 kills. Teammates Oganna Nnamani and Sara McGee supported her with 10 and 11 kills respectively. Tom also had 14 digs to go along with Courtney Shultz’s 10 to pace the Cardinal.

With the end of the season comes the opportunity for Colberg to reflect on her team’s performance.

“I’m proud of this group,” Colberg said. “We started by replacing three players at the beginning of the season. We ended up having one more when we lost Olivia (Thomas) and we replaced them with sophomores and freshmen. We figured we would struggle.

“The team worked hard though. They soaked up all the coaching we had to offer and really improved their quality of play as the season went on.”

Sac State’s 24 wins this season were the team’s most since 1998 when they had 26. Next year, only one starter, Wright, will have to be replaced.

Unfortunately, doing that probably ensures them of nothing but another trip to Palo Alto.

“The best we can do is win the conference title, improve our record and hopefully be ranked and go back to the NCAA’s,” Colberg said. “Unfortunately, the tournament doesn’t seed everyone. It seeds the top teams and everyone gets to play somewhere close to them. For us, that means it’s always going to be someone tough.”