Sacramento State volleyball coach Debby Colberg will have to find room in the trophy case for this one. The Hornets collected their fourth straight Big Sky tournament championship against rival Eastern Washington on Saturday night.

The most veteran coach at Sac State led her Hornets to their 15th straight victory of the season and this time it was on the biggest stage. The setting seemed to be at the Hornets disadvantage early in the game, Colberg began to worry.

“To come into a match like this and not win would be a real shame,” she said.

It was easy to see that the Eagles of Eastern Washington came prepared to face the No.1 team in the Big Sky. The Eagles set up a strong block each time a Hornet would go up for a spike. Eastern would jump out in front to a 14-23 lead and end the first match at 24-30.

The Hornets hitting percentage of .143 after the first game was not going to secure the Big Sky crown, while Eastern was pounding away with a hitting percentage of .283. Offensive specialist and outside hitter Atlee Hubbard would not be denied.

“I think it was nerves in the first game,” Hubbard said. “(Eastern) stopped what we did well.

“It’s a lot of pressure for us to come in here for the Big Sky final match.”

“We all knew we’ve been in this position before,” said Libero of the Year, Kristin Lutes. “We just brushed that first game off.”

The home crowd never failed the Hornets and put the pressure back on Eastern who opened the second game with four quick service errors. The Hornets were going kill for kill with the Eagles and then there was a scream that silenced the Nest.

During play at 9-8 outside hitter Jennifer Ferguson collapsed to the ground and screamed in pain. She came down on an Eastern player’s foot awkwardly and twisted her ankle. Nearly a month earlier Ferguson sprained the same foot at Montana State. Ferguson was helped off the court. She could only watch the remainder of the match.

“It’s hard not being in the game,” said Ferguson. “But our team has plenty of other great players.”

The Hornets didn’t let the loss of Ferguson negatively affect them. They picked up right where they left off, in the lead, and ran with it. Colberg screamed for Hubbard to get more aggressive in the second game and she followed those orders.

Hubbard grabbed 12 kills by the end second game alone. By the end of the match she collected her 20th double-double of the season after tacking on 10 digs. She wasn’t done yet. Hubbard’s underrated defensive play and Big Sky regular season Most Valuable Player of the Week, Lindsay Haupt, iced the Eagles offense for the rest of the match.

Haupt controlled the middle of the court, contributing to the teams 11 total blocks. The middle hitter finished the match with 12 kills with a hitting percentage of .346, two solo blocks.

Eastern cooled off after the first game, Colberg said.

“They played more human,” she said. “They were starting to make mistakes.”

The mistakes kept piling up for the Eagles as their offense slowly died out. Wade Benson the frenetic head coach of Eastern Washington tried to pass on his energy to his players on the court, but the referees didn’t take kindly to a few choice words from the bench. The visiting team collected two yellow cards and Benson was on the verge of an ejection.

“They are too emotional,” said Hubbard. “We kept our composure.”

The Hornets used Eastern’s attack of emotion against them and stayed calm during the biggest match of the season, taking a two game lead after the third game ended at 30-26 on another attack error from the Eagles.

In the fourth game the Hornets really began to soar. The Eagles couldn’t make a turn around after dropping two hard fought games. Sac State owned the crowd and the momentum.

Eastern was continually frustrated throughout the match by the referees’ calls. Benson even barked, “We should just pack it up, I don’t know why we’re playing.”

Benson got his wish, after Hubbard put away the last point of the fourth game at 30-22, the Eagles could pack up and go back to Cheney, Wash.

The Hornets won their 15th straight game, tied for the longest streak since 1998.

Lutes, Hubbard, and Haupt were selected for the all-tournament team, while Eastern also had three players, Lizzy Mellor, Christina Albers and Ashley Jensen selected. Haupt was tabbed as the tournament’s most valuable player, adding to her hardware after taking home regular season MVP honors as well.

The Hornets earned their eighth NCAA tournament berth in the last nine years. The national tournament begins on Dec. 2 and Sac State learns its match-up on Nov. 27.

First the team will head down to Stockton on Friday night to play Pacific in the Bankers Classic hosted by the Tigers. The Hornets will then either play Saint Mary’s or No. 20 Ohio on Saturday night.