Despite losing their final match the Sacramento State volleyball team won the Panther Invitational Saturday night in Milwaukee, improving their overall record to 5-5.Earlier that day the Hornets defeated Illinois State University 3-0. The win was a milestone for head coach Debby Colberg who became the seventh active Division I coach to reach 700 wins. All of them have been with Sac State.

“I’ve always found it interesting that the players are the ones who get the wins, but they add them up for me,” Colberg said. “No matter how good a coach you are, you aren’t going to win many games without good players.”

That night the Hornets lost to tournament host University of Wisconsin Milwaukee 3-2 in a hard fought match.

“It was tough,” Colberg said. “I was happy that we didn’t just throw in the towel after the first two games. We just made some mistakes in that fifth game that cost us, but neither team had it easy.”

The fifth and deciding game was necessary after the Hornets rallied back from a 2-0 hole. The Panthers bettered the Hornets’ hitting percentage .346-.115 in that game, giving them the win. Sac State still won the tournament thanks to a 8-3 game differential tiebreaker over Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s game record of 8-5.

Four Hornets finished with double figure kills and five had double figure digs. The team was led by the continually stellar play of senior setter Lisa Beauchene who posted her third triple-double (10 kills, 16 digs, 56 assists) in the last five matches.

Freshman outside hitter Jennifer Ferguson finished with a double-double (13 kills, 22 digs) and freshman defensive specialist Kristin Lutes had a team-high 31 digs.

Junior outside hitter Sandra Bandimere led the team with 21 kills, and senior middle hitter Kazmiera Imrie chipped in 17.

To open the tournament Sac State swept Eastern Illinois State University. The Hornets will head to the University of New Mexico on Friday to participate in their final tournament before Big Sky Conference play begins on Sept. 27.

Sac State will join Ohio University, the University of Kentucky and the Lobos in Albuquerque for the Comcast Lobo Invitational Tournament.

“Ohio is doing really well right now,” Colberg said. “I think their probably going to be the team to beat.”

The Bobcats bring a 6-3 record into New Mexico with a four match winning streak. So far this season they have some impressive wins, upsetting Arizona State University in the Sun Devil Classic Tournament and beating No. 23 Missouri University last week.

The Kentucky Wildcats have a 7-2 record thanks to a seven-match winning streak, recently snapped. Their wins against the University of Iowa and Iowa State Universitiy gave them the championship in the Cyclone Challenge Tournament.

The most intriguing opponent for the Hornets may be the host team from New Mexico.

“They are really struggling right now,” Colberg said.”But they’ll have the advantage of playing at home.”

The Hornets hope to continue their good fortune as they near the end of pre-conference competition, riding the hot hands of senior setter Lisa Beauchene and junior outside hitter Sandra Bandimere.

Beauchene has been named to three all-tournament teams this season and has triple-doubles in three of the last five matches while Bandimere has double figure kills in the last six matches.

Beauchene was also named Big Sky Player of the Week for the second week in a row.