The Sacramento State volleyball team came out strong against the Northern Colorado State Bears Saturday, sending them back home after winning in three straight games. Both outside hitters, Janelle Currey and Eryn Kirby, helped the team to its victory with a combined score of 67 over the entire match.

The Hornets won the games by scores of 25-17, 25-17, and 25-16.

“We have been working so hard all season and this was one of our goals was to beat Northern Colorado,” Currey said. “We stepped onto the court with that focus, so this was a great win for the team.”

The team excelled at all facets of the game on its way to victory.

“Something that really helped us tonight was that we passed and set the ball very well, so our outside hitters had good opportunities to swing and they were really aggressive,” said head coach Ruben Volta. “Also, we kept them off balance by serving really tough because they weren’t really able to get into their offensive system quick enough.”

The Hornets served effectively against the Bears, scoring 12 aces. The Bears struggled to receive the Hornets’ serve, preventing them from getting into an offensive flow.

Conversely, the Hornets did have any trouble with the Bears’ serve, receiving 10 free points from Northern Colorado’s serving errors.

“We didn’t let many balls hit the ground without us hitting the ground as well,” Currey said.

Seven balls that did hit the ground came way of Bears outside hitter Kelley Arnold. She had seven kills to lead her team. She also recorded 10 digs.

Sac State does not really vary its practice routine from match to match, Kirby said. The only variances in practice are in preparation for the oppositions best offensive threat.

Arnold, was someone that the team had to prepare for the week prior to Saturday’s match.

“We talked about her in our scouting report from the coaches, so we already had planned out how to shut her down,” Kirby said.

The movement on the court on the Hornet side was consistent. Every one was communicating, passing the ball to the right place, and setting well to the hitters giving them an opportunity to swing hard.

“Tonight was good, we as a team did really well,” Kirby said. “We all fed off of each others positive energy and when everyone does good it makes everything a lot easier on the entire team.”

The Hornets are 6-9 overall and 1-1 in the Big Sky.

Volleyball returns to Sac State on Oct. 7 at 7 p.m. against Portland State for the fifth match against the Big Sky.

Nicole Bee can be reached at [email protected].