PALO ALTO ?” In the opening round of the NCAA tournament the Sacramento State women’s volleyball team faced several obstacles other than No. 15 Santa Clara.

Instead of buckling under the pressure of facing their eighth NCAA tournament in nine years, the Hornets showed up to Maples Pavilion in top form. Santa Clara’s service errors and Sac State’s stellar defense allowed the Hornets to post a lead early and keep it. All-Big Sky outside hitter Atlee Hubbard led the Hornets to the first game point. But the frigid air conditioning of Maples seemed to cool the Hornets streak in the second game.

“I thought we came out with a lot of adrenaline,” said head coach Debby Colberg. “When we played (Santa Clara) earlier in the year, they were one of the better teams we had faced all season.”

The Broncos flipped the switch on their stalling offense in the second game. If the 6-foot-4 middle blocker Anna Cmaylo wasn’t forcing the ball past Sac State’s block, Annalisa Muratore would tag in. The Hornets would be overloaded in the middle and drop the second game 23-30.

Cmaylo continued her reign over the middle into the third game. The sophomore scored the first three points for the Broncos, while pulling double duty scoring both from the middle and the right.

Whereas Cmaylo and the Broncos built up their offense through the and on to the third, the Hornets seemed to be slowly slipping away as the dropped the third game 19-30. The Hornets were down but they were not about to roll over.

Offense was an issue for Sac State in the fourth after pushing the first game in their favor with adrenaline supplying the catalyst. That adrenaline was nowhere to be found in the fourth game. Fourteen and a half total team blocks gave the Hornets a fighting chance against the stampeding Broncos.

“We hit .300 tonight, which is something we’ve been wanting for a long time,” said Santa Clara head coach Jon Wallace. The Broncos haven’t hit .300 as team since Nov. 4 in a clean sweep against Portland.

The relentless offense of Santa Clara proved to be too much for the Big Sky champs; the Hornets finished their last game of the year 23-30.

Santa Clara will move on to face the winner of Stanford-Nevada on Saturday night at 7 p.m. at Maples. Stanford is the defending NCAA champion, while Nevada made the tournament with an at-large bid after an 18-12 season.