Sacramento State beat Minnesota 3-1 (23-30, 30-25, 30-24, 30-17) to win the first round of the NCAA tournament at the Maples Pavilion Friday night.

The Hornets were led by head coach Debby Colberg who was recently honored with the Big Sky Coach of the Year Award for the eighth time.

The Hornets came out looking for the win as this match could have marked the end of the season and the end of a career for seniors Lindsay Haupt, Missie Stidham, Jennifer Ferguson, Alex Vidal and Michelle Franz.

The first game was all Minnesota as the team came out swinging hard and putting balls down on the Hornets side of the net.

To start the second game, the Hornets earned the first point after an attack error from Minnesota’s Jessy Jones.

The game was back and forth until the Hornets reached 20 points. After that it was all Haupt and Stidham as they combined for five kills to finish the game.

Games three and four were dominated by Sac State as the team combined for a .263 and .160 hitting percentage respectively.

With the win, the Hornets increase their overall record to 29-7.

A member of the Big Ten Conference, Minnesota finished the season with an 18-13 record.

“Congratulations to Sac State, I thought they really played the game well. They did so many things that coaches of the game and insiders of the game really appreciate and I was very impressed,” said Minnesota head coach Mike Hebert.

Although the Hornets upset Minnesota, Hebert recognized that the Hornets played at a high intensity level.

“We were very uncomfortable with the style of play. The Big Ten is more of a power conference with strong hitting and blocking but we knew we were going to have our hands full tonight,” said Hebert.

Sacramento State, notorious for tip shots and being able to place the ball, frustrated Minnesota’s offense and defense.

“The finesse shots and the tipping, that’s really not our comfort zone,” said Hebert.

Even Sac State’s Colberg realized that Hornet offense was key to winning the match.

“In the third game, I felt that [freshman libero] Chelsea Goodsell’s serving was really the key to turning the game around,” said Colberg.

Although the team still has a long road ahead, it is not looking too far into the future, but instead soaking up the win from the first round.

“It’s kind of exciting to come in here as the winning team for once,” said Colberg.

The Hornets will play the winner of the Stanford vs. Santa Clara game Saturday night at 8 p.m. The match will take place in the Maples Pavilion on the Stanford Campus.

Alicia de la Garza can be reached at [email protected]