Before every game the Sacramento State volleyball team ends the team huddle with a loud cheer: “Protect our house!” For the 14th-consecutive time the Hornets did just that.

Top-seeded Sac State downed No.4-seeded Montana State in three convincing games in the semifinals of the Big Sky conference volleyball tournament to extend its winning streak to 14 games.

The hottest team in the Big Sky spent the first game thawing out its offense. The Hornets mustered a hitting percentage of .083. But head coach Debby Colberg stoked the coals and things started cooking by the end of the match.

The offense for Sac State may have been struggling but Montana State’s was hitting into the negatives at -.040 after the first game, but the defenses for both teams were forcing a rally nearly every point. The Hornets capped the first game at 30-19.

Montana State tightened the loose screws from the first game and didn’t allow Sac State to jump out to a big lead in the second frame. The Bobcats kept the Hornets within reach until 19-13. Then sophomore middle hitter Lindsay Haupt, the Big Sky’s most valuable player, could smell a win and helped the home team run over Montana State in the second game.

“We came out with confidence,” Haupt said. “I could have done better with my blocking.”

The demanding sophomore must not have seen the stat sheet over the game. Haupt posted five total blocks, the match high, which came just over her average of 1.53 in the regular season. Haupt added 11 kills with a hitting percentage of .375 against Montana State. She also collected first-team All-Big Sky honors and a pair of conference player of the week awards this season.

In the third game the offense came alive. Junior outside hitter Atlee Hubbard found her swing and used it mercilessly against the Bobcats. Hubbard finished with 12 kills, the match high, with 21 digs. Her performance counted for the 19th double double for the junior.

“Our offense started off really shaky in the first game,” Hubbard said. “But we got aggressive and our defense was there for us.”

Another junior continued to make her mark on the Hornets best season since 1998. Junior middle hitter Michelle Franz is naturally quiet person. Throughout the season she has used that to her advantage. Against Montana State she did some serious damage, however.

“They came out strong,” Franz said. “They set a pretty good block.”

Franz snuck past the Bobcats block and racked up eight kills on fourteen attempts with only one error for a hitting percentage of .500, and tacked on three blocks.

History has a funny way of repeating itself. The Hornets will face No.3-seeded Eastern Washington for the seventh time in the Big Sky tournament finals and the sixth time in a row after the Eagles up-ended No. 2 seed Portland State in the first semifinal on Friday night. Sacramento State is 6-1 since facing the Eagles in the first final in 1998. The last three conference tournaments have been in Cheney, Wash., and the Hornets have won all of them. This year the Hornets have the home court by virtue of winning the conference regular season title.

“They probably want to kill us, since it is at our place this year,” Franz said.

The Eagles should be fired up to face their rivals in the finals for the sixth straight time. In 2001, the last time Eastern faced Sac State in the finals at Sacramento as the No. 3 seed and won in four games. The Eagles are led by senior middle blocker Ashley Jensen who had eight blocks in the semifinal victory over Portland State.

“She is their firecracker,” said Hubbard. “She is the one to get everything started for them. I’m personally looking to shut her down.”

In order to advance to the NCAA tournament for the ninth time in 10 years the Hornets protect their house one more time beginning Saturday at 7 p.m.