Maybe it was the Rice Krispie Treats.

On her 55th birthday Saturday, Sacramento State volleyball coach Debby Colberg received one of the best gifts she could have imagined from her team: a sweep victory of archrival Eastern Washington 3-0 (30-26, 30-27, 30-22) at the Hornets Nest.

This of course was after a pre game meal consisting of an old favorite of Colberg’s, Rice Krispie Treats prepared by her team.

“I’ve had a few other birthdays on match-days, but this one was special,” Colberg, who has coached the team for the last 29 years, said. “This is the best gift a coach can receive.

“I just had one request of the team: No singing.”

With their a-melodic win, the Hornets (14-5, 4-1 Big Sky) moved into a three-way tie for first in the Big Sky Conference with Montana State (12-4, 4-1) and Eastern (9-6, 4-1) after entering the day in third place.

Sac State led by as many as six points in game one at 16-10 when sophomore libero Kristin Lutes dug out three consecutive balls, including a one-armed fully laid out diving stop, to set up an Emily Wilson kill.

On the next play however, Wilson would be injured when she and fellow senior Sandra Bandimere went up to attack an over-passed ball and Bandimere’s elbow caught Wilson directly in the eye. She did not return to the match.

The Hornets played nearly flawless volleyball on paper in game one, committing no errors compared with Eastern’s five. It took the birthday coach to point Hornet wrongdoings.

“As a coach you see the game in a different way,” Colberg said. “I see the little mistakes we make, like not controlling the ball on a broken play.

“But overall we played good defense at times and when you combine that with blocking, you’ll score points.”

Despite being out-hit (.172-.155), out-dug (67-64) and out-blocked (7-6) by the Eagles, Sac State came away with a victory, spurred on by strong play from their bench.

Every Hornet in uniform saw meaningful playing time Saturday afternoon, chief among them was freshman middle hitter Lindsay Haupt who came into the game as a result of Wilson’s injury.

“My first thought was, ‘Oh no, it’s Emily,'” Haupt said. “Then I told myself to get focused and prepare to play because I knew I would be the one to go in.”

Haupt finished with seven kills, a .400 hitting percentage and four blocks.

“We’re fortunate to have a Lindsay Haupt to come in for us,” Colberg said. “We really have four good middles.”

The fourth middle hitter Colberg made reference to is sophomore Leah Klemenhagen, who came in and had three kills on three attacks for a perfect 1.000 hitting percentage.

Senior setter Stephanie Gamst also dimed out 38 assists, 16 of which came in game one alone.

The Eagles soared out to a 5-1 lead in game two, only to have Sac State wrestle control back at 22-21 on a Natalie Melcher kill set up by two key digs from Lutes right at the net off Eagle blocks. Two service errors and two more ball handling errors down the stretch doomed Eastern and the Hornets were able to capitalize, winning 30-27 to go into the locker room at intermission with just one game left to win.

“Our defense won this game for us today,” Lutes, who finished with a match-high 20 digs, said. “Nothing was going to hit the floor.”

Three players on both teams ended up with double-figures in digs comprising Deanna Albers (17), Andrea Verdoljak (15) and Lizzy Mellor (11), who had the most kills of anyone at 13, for Eastern Washington and Lutes, Bandimere (17) and sophomore outside hitter Atlee Hubbard (10) for the Hornets.

“Defense is definitely my favorite phase of the game of volleyball,” Colberg said. “I don’t show it, but I do get as excited as the fans do watching a long rally from the bench.”

A 23-12 run coming out of a Colberg timeout gave the Hornets a cozy 23-16 lead in game three. Sac State was the beneficiary of 13 total errors for points committed by the Eagles in that span. Bandimere put down three kills during the run to give her 12 for the match, a high for the Hornets. Sac State eventually cooked the Eagles’ goose 30-22 to complete the home sweep of their bitter rival.

“We came out pretty confident today,” Bandimere said. “There wasn’t even a question that we’d win this match, especially at home.

“Of course this just means they’ll be 10 times more fired up when we go up there to play them at their house.”