Sandra Bandimere is about to leap into the Hornet record books as she approaches yet another milestone.

With two more digs on the season she will become the second Hornet in the past four years to tally 400 kills and 400 digs in a season.

Jumping is nothing new for Bandimere, though; she does it all the time as an outside hitter for Sacramento State volleyball.

What’s surprising about the vertical leap of this 5-foot-7-inch Roseville native is the amplitude.

“I see her jump and I just think, ‘Wow,'” head coach Debby Colberg. “She’s just fun to watch.”

The highest Bandimere has touched on a wall at Sac State was a gravity-defying 9 feet 11 inches following her sophomore year. In fact, this fall coming off ankle surgery she almost matched it at 9 feet 10 inches.

That leap powered Bandimere to a career high 36 kills in a Sac State 3-2 (25-30, 30-17, 30-17, 15-30, 16-14) victory over Portland State (13-12, 5-7 Big Sky) on Saturday. That game combined with a 15 kill, 19 dig performance in a 3-1 (30-27, 30-23, 28-30, 30-21) loss to conference leading Eastern Washington (18-6, 11-1) last Thursday helped garner her Big Sky co-Player of the Week for the second time in her career after averaging 5.67 kills and 3.11 digs per game.

Despite all that air beneath her white adidas’, it’s been what Bandimere has done with both feet planted on the floor this year that has garnered attention. In a season where defense has had special emphasis for the Hornets (21-7, 9-3), especially with opening night starting libero Kristin Lutes missing the last three weeks with a broken finger, Bandimere has been leaned on to play more in the back row.

“I actually didn’t think I would ever use (Sandra) in the back row,” Colberg said. “But she has cat-like quickness and will beat anyone to the ball and her ability to control the ball has been a big surprise.”

In Bandimere’s first season as a starter in 2002 she totaled 136 digs averaging 1.09 per game. That number more than doubled last year as Bandimere amassed 280 total digs and averaged 2.22 per game.

Coming into this season, the coaching staff and Bandimere herself wanted to see her defense mirror her offensive output — and it nearly has. She is averaging 4.42 kills and 4.02 digs per game and is just two digs shy of the second Hornet in four years to achieve the feat. Jayme Wright was the last to do so during the 2002 season.

“I like playing defense, I even told Debby that in a meeting and she looked at me amazed,” Bandimere said. “It was a goal of mine coming into this season to play all the way around.”

Another senior riding a hot streak coming into the weekend’s final homestand is setter Stephanie Gamst. Gamst has had at least 52 assists in each of the last four games raising her assists per game average to 11.95 which is good for third in the Big Sky.

Along with Emily Wilson who is second in the Big Sky with 1.44 blocks per game and Jackie Coudert who transferred prior to this season from Cal State Stanislaus, Bandimere and Gamst will be honored on senior night prior to Saturday’s 7 p.m. match against Weber State.

Prior to Weber State the Hornets take on Idaho State at 7 p.m. on Thursday in the Hornets Nest.