The Sacramento State women’s volleyball team needed all five games Tuesday night to defeat the arch-rival UC Davis Aggies. The Hornets, who were out to avenge last season’s loss, finished the match strong to improve their record to 5-5 on the season. Led by senior Desiree Hoyum, the Hornets jumped out to a fast start taking the first two games by the score of 25-21 and 25-22. Hoyum, who seemed to come up with timely smashes for the Hornets throughout the night, led all players with 20 kills. In a game highlighted by long rallies and a lot of back and forth play. “During the rally there’s so much adrenaline going and you want to keep the ball up,” Hoyum said. It’s good just knowing that you battled and battled and you finally get to take a breath.” Freshman Janelle Currey finished second for the Hornets with 13 kills while Allison Whitson led the Aggies with 16. After taking the early two game lead, the Hornets lost some of its sting dropping the next two games to the Aggies by scores of 25-23 and 25-19. “I think we may have let up a little bit, Middle Hitter Maddison Thivierge commented afterward, “Our coach said that the third game after winning the first two games are the hardest games to win because that team comes back fired up.” “We got a little tentative in the middle of the match,” said head coach Ruben Volta. “To Davis’ credit, they played really well, so we put of pressure on them.” As the intensity rose for the do-or-die game of the night, the Hornets answered the call. With key contributions in the form of four kills out of Maddison Thivierge and two more from Emily Trudgeon, the women of Sacramento State were able to outlast UC Davis 15-10 and emerge victorious.

“Amazing. It was really good. I’m glad we were able to do it in front of the home crowd,” Hoyum said about the win. Also of note in the match, Hornets’ Kelsey Elston led all players with eight blocks and this victory over the Aggies earned 10 points for Sacramento State in its bid for the Causeway Cup.

Stamati Horiates can be reached at [email protected]