Senior setter Stephanie Gamst had every reason to relish Sacramento State volleyball’s victory over Pacific back on Oct. 19.

Sacramento State volleyball’s only fifth-year senior was grinning from ear to ear after the Hornets beat the Tigers for the first time in seven years — and it was only right.

“She’s a very dedicated player,” said graduate assistant Lisa Beauchene, who came into the program at the same time as Gamst and started at setter for the past four seasons. “She doesn’t have to be here, she’s just taking classes so she can play.

“That shows how important this is to her.”

Gamst started the tandem’s first match at setter as a freshman in 2000 at Pacific. According to Gamst, head coach Debby Colberg pulled her after the first game and inserted Beauchene into the lineup. Gamst ended up playing in two of the three games in that match, tallying 11 assists while Beauchene went on to have 16 and hit .625.

The Hornets lost that match in three games yet it all but launched Beauchene’s career as she was the setter for the next four years running, going on to win numerous accolades.

“I was nervous coming in and starting as a freshman,” Gamst said. “That game kind of shot me in the foot.”

So after a game in which Gamst dished out 37 assists in a three-game spanking of the team she was pulled against in her first career start, it was no wonder that she was all smiles.

“This feels really good,” Gamst told The State Hornet afterward. “It’s really satisfying to beat this team.”

Before this season Gamst only got five other starts in her career either at rightside hitter or as a defensive specialist as Beauchene never missed a start from the fall of 2000 until she graduated last spring.

“It wasn’t necessarily that Lisa was that much better than Stephanie, but I noticed the team did better with Lisa setting,” Colberg said.

So Gamst sat. And sat, all the while waiting for her turn to start, even taking a redshirt in what would have been her sophomore season in 2001 so that she would have the opportunity to do so one day.

“It was always difficult to stay motivated knowing I wasn’t going to start,” Gamst said. “All I could do was work as hard as I could in practice.

“Leaving would have (made me) a quitter,” Gamst said. “I don’t see myself as a quitter.”

“Is it a tough decision? Sometimes. Does your heart ache for the players that are on the bench? You bet,” Colberg said. “My job is to get the players to buy into the fact that I have to do what is best for everyone on this team and sometimes it’s tough to sell that.”

Although she didn’t start Gamst, Colberg acknowledged that she had the ace up her sleeve all along.

“I think a lot of people may have thought Sac State would not be as good a team without Lisa,” head coach Debby Colberg said. “I didn’t think that because I know how good Stephanie is.”

All Gamst did in her fifth season with the program was repay the faith Colberg and the team had in her, finishing the regular season second in the Big Sky in assists with 12.02 per game while setting the table for a Hornets offense that is first in the conference in kills (15.90 per game) and second in hitting percentage (.232).

“(Having a good setter) sets the tone for your team, they can make you quicker or slow you down,” said senior outside hitter Sandra Bandimere who is second in the Big Sky averaging 4.38 kills per game. “(Gamst) definitely makes my job easier.”

It won’t get any easier for Gamst or the Hornets now as every match they play from here on out could be their last. Sac State will be the No. 2 seed and have a bye in the first round of the Big Sky Conference tournament at Eastern Washington.

Gamst has not been on the losing end of a Big Sky tournament game in her playing career; the year she redshirted and did not play was the last time the Hornets lost the Big Sky title match. Sac State also won the conference championship in her freshman year of 2000.

“I’m not superstitious, but I’ll take that as being a good sign for us,” Colberg said.

Big Sky tournament team capsules:

No. 6 Northern Arizona (7-18, 4-10): Picked to finish seventh by the coaches in the preseason poll after an eventful offseason, the Lumberjacks came out and posted upsets over conference foe Montana State and Arizona State of the Pac-10. They will have a rematch with the Bobcats in the first round on Thursday night.

No. 5 Portland State (13-14, 5-9): The Vikings come into the tournament having lost their last three matches — all of which were in conference. They split the season series with their opening round opponent Idaho State. If Portland State advances it would be the furthest the school has gone in the Big Sky tournament in 19 years.

No. 4 Idaho State (12-16, 8-6): The Bengals are a team stacked at outside hitter with 2003 all-Conference first team selection Ali Gorny and 2003 Most Outstanding Freshman Nikki Randall. They began the season at home with a five-game upset of No. 3 seed Montana State and followed that up with a sweep of the Bobcats in Bozeman, Mont.

No. 3 Montana State (18-7, 10-4): One of three teams to defeat the Sac State this season, Eastern Washington and Idaho State being the other two, sweeping the Hornets in Bozeman and forcing a fourth game in Sacramento. “We have to be ready to rally with them,” Bandimere said of the Bobcats. “They play great defense and we’ll have to be patient.”

No. 1 Eastern Washington (19-7, 12-2): The Eagles will host the tournament for the third straight year after going through the regular season dropping matches to just Sac State (23-7, 11-3) and Montana State, both on the road.

“We just have to go in tough minded and be tough competitors,” Colberg said. “We’ve been there before, we know what it’s like.”

Sac State plays the highest remaining seed in the semifinals Friday at 5 p.m. The Hornets have beaten Eastern in the past two consecutive Big Sky title matches contested at Reese Court in Cheney, Wash.