The Sacramento State volleyball team concluded the 2009 Hornet Invitational with a record of 2-1 after defeating Alabama 3-1 Saturday night. The Hornets finished the tournament in second place, behind San Francisco, who finished the invitational with a record of 3-0.

Fresno State finished the tournament in third place with a record of 1-2, and Alabama took last with a 0-3 record.

The Hornet Invitational proved to be a huge success. “It was a great turnaround for us,” senior Desiree Hoyum said.

This accelerated new tournament gave Sac State an opportunity to showcase its progression. The invitational also gave the other universities involved the chance to compete and determine their own strengths and weaknesses to better assess themselves.

“This is the first Hornet Invitational. We usually just host one tournament a year so this is the first time we have ever hosted two tournaments in a row,” said head coach Ruben Volta.

Volta said he made it a priority to call and email several different coaches to try and fill up another tournament.

“It’s essentially just sort of luck in scheduling really,” he said. “(We went to) Alabama a couple of years ago and they said they would return the favor. Because they were able to return to us, we were able to fill the tournament quickly. It was (I) just trying to schedule another tournament, we realized that there weren’t a lot of people offering the weekend before this so I sent a mass e-mail and we were able to set up another tournament.”

Volta’s more veteran players are happy with the tournament’s results.

“I think we grew a lot from this tournament,” senior Melissa Melcher said.

Volta said that the Hornets are getting better with every game and tournament that they participate in.

“We are playing more consistently. I’m really pleased with how we played. We had a really consistent level of play,” Volta said. “We are capable of playing really well and we have had some balances over the games. We got better as the tournament went on.”

Volta said they had their ups and downs, but he feels they gained a lot of fight from the previous games and his girls came back showing that. “We served really aggressively, which kept Alabama off-balance offensively. We are capable of playing really well and we have had some balances over the games. We got better as the tournament went on.”

Overall, Sac State did very well in the standings and the box scores, with the statistics to prove it.

Junior Maddison Thivierge, one of the three players with double-figure kills, led all players with 18 kills, six more than any other player in the match, and 21 points in the finale of the invitational.

Hoyum had 12 kills and 17 digs, and freshman Janelle Currey with 12 kills and 12 digs, were the other two Hornets with double-figure kills. Both of them recorded their seventh double double of the season thus far.

Defensively, sophomore Breanne Menees led the team with 23 digs, followed by freshman Sydney Kordic with 17 digs, Hoyum also had 17 and Currey recorded 12 digs. Senior setter Melissa Melcher had a monster tournament by added four kills, 47 assists, nine digs and three blocks to the Hornets’ stats.

“This game was amazing,” Melcher said.

Kelsey Elston led the Hornets in both blocks, with 1.42 per set, and four service aces. Elston and Thivierge were named to the all-tournament team.

“We served really aggressively, which kept Alabama off-balanced offensively,” Volta said.

The Crimson Tide thought playing on Colberg Court gave Sac State a slight advantage.

“I feel the Hornets played very inspired tonight,” said Alabama head coach Judy Green.

Last weekend the Hornets hosted the seventh annual Sacramento State Invitational. The tournament left a bad taste in the Hornets’ mouth as they went 0-3.

“The (Sacramento State Invitational) was a wake up call for us to never do that again,” Hoyum said. The Hornets entered the invitational craving success.

“Yes, we were like ‘never again,'” Melcher said.

Although the Hornets were not crowned the tournament champions, the tournament demonstrates that Sac State won more than just a couple of games. The girls left the Colberg Court happy and proud of themselves; not only were they proud of themselves, opposing teams and coaches showed their appreciation for the tournament and congratulations for the great matches provided.

“They have a young team just like we do, they have some freshmen on the floor and have some kids that are injured, but I how they played at home is how you’re supposed to defend your home court,” Green said.

“This was a great tournament from top to bottom,” Green said.

With these back-to-back home tournaments wrapped up, Sac State must now prepare for its next tournament, the DePaul Invitational in Chicago on Sunday and Monday.

Poetiic Reid can be reached at [email protected]