The Sacramento State women’s volleyball lost their final home game of the invitational against UC Santa Barbara going 0-3.

The Hornet’s first set was their best set score of the night. Morgan Stanley led the team with four kills and Lexie Skalbeck contributed five of the nine digs. Stanley had three key kills towards the end of the set with each time tying up the score. The women held a close battle but came up short ending the set 19-25.

The second set started off with a long rally and error by Santa Barbara, giving the Hornets the first point. Sloan Lovett followed up with a hard kill giving them their second score. Freshman Kennedy Kurtz had four digs and Skalbeck followed with three. The last half of the second set was a quick loss for the women, resulting a score of 14-25.

Setter Kurtz said her team has the ability to play at a much higher level and needs to learn to consistently play at that intensity.

“One thing that I think we can take away from this tournament is that we need to play at a really high tempo offense twenty-four seven,” Kurtz said. “We have to have the mentality that we are going to win every single set and that we have to expect the unexpected.”

The final set of the game concluded the women’s loss with a score of 15-25. Santa Barbara had a total of 11 service aces in the match with the majority of them taking place in the last two sets. Sac State had a total of seven kills in the third set and 30 attacks.

Coach Ruben Volta believes his team has gained experience through this tournament and wants the Hornets to play with more courage.

“I want us to get better against good competition and I don’t think we rose up to the challenge,” Volta said.

Junior captain Lovett knows the Hornets have a young roster but does not feel it is an excuse for their losses. She said that the team needs to play with less caution.

“We just need to be confident,” Lovett said. “We all have the skill level to win.”

The two-day invitational concludes Sac State’s home stand. The women finished with a 0-3 record, which puts them at 2-5 overall.