The Sacramento State volleyball team was in an unfamiliar place six matches into the season. After losing five straight, something had to give.

Colberg was at the beginning of her 30th season as head coach of Hornets volleyball and hadn’t seen a losing streak that long since 1991, the program’s first year in Division I.

During the morning of Sept. 4, senior Natalie Melcher was tapped to be the starting setter for the Hornets against Houston. Without any previous warning she was given the go ahead to turn things around for the team. Melcher didn’t seem to mind.

“I was thrilled,” Melcher said. “I’ve always wanted to set, it has to be the highlight of my college career.”

“I was thinking we’re going to try this because what we are doing isn’t working,” head coach Debby Colberg said.

By placing Melcher in at setter, the Hornets got something much more than they expected. Sac State swept Houston at home in three straight games. From that time the Hornets have sky-rocketed to first place in the Big Sky conference with a 12-1 record.

“I didn’t think Natalie could handle the setter position as well as she did,” Colberg said. “I didn’t intend for her to be the starting setter for the rest of the year.”

“If we had got it right at the beginning of the season we wouldn’t have had that losing streak.”

Since Melcher has taken control of the offense, the team has not lost a match in six weeks and has only given up two game points in the same stretch. The senior setter has matched the longest winning streak for the Hornets since the 1998 season.

The Cal Poly (San Luis Obispo) transfer came to Sacramento after failing to see much playing time and an emotional conflict with the coaching staff.

“The coaches at Cal Poly were very negative and I wasn’t used to that,” said Melcher. “Coming to [Sac State] has been a positive experience. It made me want to play volleyball again.”

The 2003 season was a much quieter season for Melcher. As a right side hitter she was benched behind other starting veteran players. Instead of spending an entire season on the bench she decided to redshirt and save a year of athletic eligibility.

As the graduating seniors moved on Melcher came off the bench in 2004, set to replace first team All-Big Sky outside hitter Kazmiera Imrie. Melcher started 17 of the 31 total matches that she appeared in.

Setting seems to be in the blood for the Melchers. Father Gene, sister Melissa and brother Graham are all setters. During high school at Redlands East Valley, Natalie spent all four years getting coached by her father, but even then Melcher couldn’t do what she wanted to do.

“She was the tallest girl on the team and I needed her to be a hitter and a blocker,” father and former coach Gene Melcher said.

The once “tall and skinny” girl at her high school still holds the 10th, 11th and 12th grade high jump records, including her best jump of 5-foot-2.

In 2001 Melcher was selected by Volleyball Magazine as one of the top 50 high school seniors in the nation. She also led her former Wildcats team to three Citrus Belt titles. It wasn’t until her last year of play in the Rancho Valley volleyball club in 2000 that Melcher was picked to be a setter.

The Junior National Volleyball Team picked Melcher to come out to Colorado Springs, Colo.

“It was an amazing and inspiring experience,” said Melcher who had just started setting while other players at the national team’s training camp had been setting their entire careers.

She just didn’t have enough experience at the time,” mother Carol Melcher said. “But I’ve always called her the crème, because she’s like the crème that always rises to the top.”

Melcher has risen from the bench to lead the top offense in the Big Sky. The Hornets secured their first regular season conference title since 2001 over the weekend against Idaho State and Weber State. By virtue Sacramento State will be hosting the Big Sky tournament for the first time in three years.

Melcher and the Hornets have trampled 10 of their last 12 opponents in three straight games and have won 10-straight Big Sky matches. Should the Hornets take the Big Sky crown for the fourth straight time, they will have an automatic berth into the NCAA tournament.

Melcher honored

Melcher won Big Sky Player of the week honors after leading the Hornets to two three-game sweeps over Idaho State (30-23, 30-17, 30-22) and Weber state (30-23, 30-20, 30-23).

Melcher averaged over 14 assists per game during the two matches last week. The Hornets have now won 12 straight matches going back to Oct. 1.

She became the third Hornet to win player of the week in volleyball this year joining Lindsay Haupt and Michelle Franz and it is the third week in a row a Hornet has been so honored.

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

Brad Alexander can be reached at [email protected]