Sacramento State volleyball was dealt a serious blow over the weekend in its quest for an eighth straight Big Sky Conference championship.

Sophomore libero Kristin Lutes hurt the knuckle above her pinky on her right hand, an injury called a “boxer’s fracture,” and will miss at least a month of competition with her hand in a hard cast for three weeks.

“This like being a little kid and your favorite toy gets broken,” Lutes said. “This is what I love to do and it’s been taken away.

“I’ve never not been able to play because of injury.”

The injury occurred midway through the first game of the Hornets’ (15-6, 5-2 Big Sky) five game 3-2 (30-21, 30-27, 29-31, 28-30, 15-9) victory over Weber State (2-18, 1-5) last Friday night. According to Lutes, as she dove for a ball hit past the Hornet block and extended one arm the ball landed in such a way that it wedged between her knuckle and the ground, causing the fracture.

“It’s something I do all the time,” Lutes said. “The ball came down in such a way that I got hurt, it happened so fast.”

She said that although she knew something was wrong, she continued to play through it.

“Kristin played a great match even though she got hurt,” Sac State head coach Debby Colberg said.

Only the next morning after a night of rest did the injury start to reveal itself.

“In practice Saturday morning I dug about six balls and it felt like someone was ripping my finger off at the knuckle,” Lutes said. “I was on the verge of tears.”

Lutes comes out of the weekend, despite missing Saturday night versus Idaho State, second in the Big Sky in digs per game (4.65) behind Eastern Washington’s Andrea Verdoljak (4.69), and has a total of 321. Last year as a freshman Lutes amassed the eighth best single-season total in Sac State history, 486, on the way to winning the Big Sky Libero of the Year.

With the injury the Hornets will have to shuffle their lineup at least for the time being, until Lutes is able to return, possibly for the Big Sky tournament Nov. 18-20.

“This is why we have a bench,” Colberg said.

Junior defensive specialist Mallory Hook will be called upon to step into the libero role, a position she played most of her freshman year, ironically due to a season ending injury to then-starter Olivia Thomas.

“I know how to play this position, I’ve done it before,” Hook said. “There’s just more responsibility on me now, I have to step up and be the leader on defense.”

The Hornets were without two starters Saturday night against Idaho State (9-12, 5-2) as junior rightside hitter Natalie Melcher did not make the trip due to illness and Lutes had been injured the previous night.

The Bengals moved themselves into a three-way tie for second place in the Big Sky with Sac State and Montana State (13-5, 5-2) by beating the Hornets for the first time since 1996, 3-1 (32-30, 30-24, 27-30, 30-26).Sac State hit just .182 against the Bengals and were bested in both kills (75-64) and digs (80-74).

“We don’t play as confident on the road and everyone plays more confident at home,” Colberg said. “I almost think we should play on the road until we like it.”

After winning each of the past seven Big Sky regular season or tournament championships, according to senior outside hitter and captain Sandra Bandimere the target on the Hornets’ backs is undeniable.

“Everyone wants to beat Sac State, we have that reputation and teams get up to play us,” Bandimere said. “What we need to do is grow up as a team and not be immature.

“When teams make runs on us, we let it get to us and we shouldn’t.”