Hornets volleyball drove a spike into the hearts of Loyola Marymount fans Sunday night en route to winning its second- straight Sacramento State Invitational title without a loss. Sac State also extended its winning streak to four-straight to break even at 5-5 for the season.

After an early season slide of five straight games, the Hornets are soaring.

In the first match of the tournament against Nevada and its powerful senior Salaia Salave’a, the Hornets started to realize their potential. After four grueling games Salave’a topped all scorers with 24 kills. But Sac State’s team effort was too much for the Wolfpack as the Hornets rolled to victory.

The second round match became the story of two setters. While senior Natalie Melcher set for the first two matches, freshman hopeful Rose Burke saw her first minutes since being pulled after the team’s fifth straight loss of the season to Rice University. The pair rounded out a team effort three-game sweep against the Lions of Columbia University.

But the real test had yet to come for the Hornets. Ding-ding, round three, Loyola Marymount.

Junior Kristin Lutes lead the team’s defense against the LMU Lions, adding 29 digs to the team’s total of 102.

“My defense was really aggressive,” Lutes said. “I’d give myself a nine out of 10. We knew we had to win against (Loyola Marymount) to get a better seed, should we make it to the NCAA tournament.”

Lutes’ 6.27 digs per game during the tournament contributed to her nomination for all-tournament honors for the second time in her career.

Junior outside hitter Atlee Hubbard took charge on the offense with a team high 16 kills over the Lions. Hubbard joined five other Hornets with double figure kills in the title match.

Melcher scrambled after every ball, once costing her an over handed kill shot to the face courtesy of LMU’s 6-foot-2 sophomore Heather Hughes.

The Lions wouldn’t lie down easily. The title match went four games, with the Hornets jumping out quickly, taking the first two games and finishing 3-1.

“We battled the most in this game,” junior outside hitter Shannon Roland said. “I found it easy to (score) on them.”

After the first two games Loyola rebounded to put away game three. The Lions were able to take advantage of a Hornets team that had slipped its focus from games one and two. The Hornets weren’t going to let the match slip away from them.

“They were a really good team,” sophomore middle hitter Lindsay Haupt said. “We responded really well.”

Haupt racked up 10 kills, two digs and assisted on nearly each of the 17 Hornet blocks against LMU. Blocks and hitting percentage (.234) were the only statistics in Sacramento’s favor, while Loyola Marymount lead in kills (75-70), assists (72-57) and digs (108-102).

By the fourth game, the Hornets hadn’t slacked pace. The team went without a timeout against a Lions team that was seeing the match slip away one kill and one block at a time. With the Lions on the ropes as the Hornets led, Loyola Marymount’s head coach, Steve Stratos, had had enough and let the referees know it. The LMU bench was warned with a yellow card.

Loyola Marymount was stung with their first loss of the season (5-1). Stratos refused to speak with the State Hornet after the match.

Now 10 games into the season the Hornets are starting to gel and find the rhythm which seemed so far away during an early five game slide.

“We started off really slow,” Haupt said. “We are learning to fight as a team.”

The Hornets’ next home match will be against Montana State on Sept. 22 at the Hornets Nest.

Tough road ahead

The Hornets next travel to the Orange and Green Challenge, hosted by Miami in Coral Gables, Fla.

In the opening round, Sac State plays the host Hurricanes (5-0) at 4 p.m. Friday. Miami is coming off a win in another home tournament, the Hurricane Invitational and a spotless record at the Houston Invitational.

The Hornets then take on No. 9 Louisville (6-0), which will be the third-straight match in which they face an undefeated opponent.

The Cardinals have won all six matches in 3-0 sweeps, with wins over Kentucky, Illinois and No. 25 Long Beach State.

To round out the weekend, Sac State plays Michigan State (6-1) at 5 p.m. Saturday. The Spartans’ only loss was a sweep at the hands of Kansas, which is currently receiving votes in the AVCA/CSTV Top 25 poll.

The tournament also marks the return to Florida for Hornets freshman setter Rose Burke, who was a four-time All-State selection at Gainesville High.

?”?”?”?”?”?”?”?”?”?”?”?”?”?”?”?”?”?”?”?”?”?”?”?”?”?”?”?”?”

Brad Alexander can be reached at [email protected]