Happy just to be here? Not these Hornets.

“For a lot of teams their biggest goal is just to make the NCAA Tournament,” said head coach Debby Colberg who won her seventh Big Sky Coach of the Year award in the last eight years and fifth consecutive this season. “That excitement wore off for me a long time ago.”

Sacramento State’s NCAA Tournament fate was revealed Sunday evening when the 64-team bracket was announced live on ESPN News.

The Hornets will face 10th-seeded St. Mary’s in the opening match of the first round, which will be held at Haas Pavilion on the California campus this Thursday at 5 p.m.

“I’m not satisfied with just going to or winning in the first round,” Hornets senior outside hitter and team captain Sandra Bandimere said. “It’s been a goal of mine to go past the second round since no other Sac State team has done that.

“I just hope the other players think that too.”

This NCAA appearance is the eighth overall and seventh in the last eight years for the Hornets (25-7, 11-3 Big Sky) who have earned their spot in the field by way of the Big Sky Conference’s automatic bid each year since 1997 except 1999 when they were upset by Cal State Northridge in the conference semifinals but received an at-large bid and 2001 when Eastern Washington upset the Hornets in the finals and the Hornets did not get an at-large bid.

This year Sac State knocked off Big Sky regular season champion Eastern Washington for the third straight year in Cheney, Wash., 3-1 (30-21, 22-30, 30-18, 30-21). Bandimere added another award to her ever-growing mantel as she was named the tournament MVP after posting 18 kills and hitting for a .341 clip in the title match.

The Hornets also got solid contributions from senior middle hitter Emily Wilson and sophomore outside hitter Atlee Hubbard, both of whom joined Bandimere on the all-Tournament team.

Wilson hit .333 in the title match with six blocks and Hubbard totaled 32 kills in the semifinals and finals combined to lift the Hornets into yet another NCAA berth.

“(The Big Sky title match) was special for Emily because that’s the first time she’s played well against Eastern,” Colberg said. “She can be a real threat in the middle and we need another all-star effort from her against St. Mary’s.”

The Hornets almost turned in an all-star performance in their first round match last year. Facing the No. 5-seeded Stanford Cardinal for the second straight time last December, the Hornets pushed 2004 Olympian Oganna Nnamani and Co. to the limit in the first two games, but eventually folded in a 3-0 (39-37, 30-28, 30-23) loss.

“This (NCAA Tournament) match has more meaning than those in the past because we have a legitimate shot at winning this year,” Colberg said. “We’ve been given an opportunity with our seeding.

“The gap between us and St. Mary’s this year isn’t as wide as the gap between us and Stanford last year.”

St. Mary’s (23-3, 12-2 West Coast) is making its second NCAA appearance in as many seasons and just the second overall in program history — both at-large bids. This year marks the first season that the Gaels are seeded entering the Big Dance. St. Mary’s finished second in the West Coast Conference behind eventual champion and No. 9 seed San Diego (22-4, 14-0).

Playing at No. 8 seed Cal in the first round last year the Gaels dropped a 3-0 (30-20, 30-21, 30-23) contest to the Golden Bears last Dec. 5.

The Gaels won five matches and finished last in conference in the year before Jon Stevenson was named head coach in 2002. Since then the program has shown steady improvement, winning nine matches and finishing fourth in the WCC in 2002 and last year posting the program’s first 20-win season.

“People told me this would be a dead-end job when I took it,” Stevenson said. “I don’t think any volleyball coaching job is a dead-end when you have (student-athletes) that are willing to give so much and you yourself are willing to put in the time and work.

“When I got here, this place was undervalued. There was a whole lot of potential with this being such a prestigious institution and the campus is really beautiful. It’s been a matter of getting the resources behind the recruitment process and fundamentally changing the program.

“This isn’t some sort of incredible feat that we’ve all of a sudden accomplished.”

Earlier this year St. Mary’s came into the Hornets Nest and walked away with an epic 3-2 (30-28, 29-31, 30-21, 24-30, 15-13) victory to end a 17 match winless drought against the Hornets.

“St. Mary’s was just more consistent and made fewer errors than we did in that match,” Colberg said. “I was most impressed with the fact that at the end it was our match to win or lose, we just made errors at the wrong times.

“We’re definitely taking them more seriously after that match and we can prepare better.”

Hubbard, who had been inconsistent early in the season put together one of her more solid non-conference performances posting 16 digs to along 17 digs three blocks and an ace but did have two return errors down the stretch in the fifth game.

“We match up with St. Mary’s well and this should be a good shot a some revenge for coming in here and winning that match in five,” Hubbard said.”It’s too bad on many levels that two quality teams play in the first round and one of them will be going home after one match,” Stevenson said. “There’s something fundamentally wrong with the seeding system.”

The winner of the St. Mary’s-Sac State contest will face the winner of Thursday night’s second match pitting unseeded host Cal (16-11, 11-7 Pac-10), which is ranked No. 17 in the AVCA USA Today/CSTV Top 25 poll, against the University of the Pacific (19-9, 13-5 Big West) on Friday night at 7 p.m. in Berkeley.

The winner of Friday night’s match will be off to Seattle for the Sweet 16 and West Regional finals which take place Dec. 10-11.

Tickets for the first and second round matches at Haas Pavilion are $12 for a reserved seat, $10 for general admission, $6 for students and senior citizens and $4 for children. Children under two-years-old will be admitted for free.

The match can be heard over the internet at www.hornetsports.com by clicking the live audio button with media relations director Brian Berger providing the play-by-play.