The Hornet’s women’s volleyball lost this afternoon’s match against Portland State 0-3 (22-25, 19-25, 22-25). The win for PSU put them at 4-4 in the Big Sky Conference, and Sacramento State is now 0-8 in conference, leaving the team on an eight game losing streak.

The first set was a close game but had Sac State coming up short with the women hitting .205 with 44 attacks and 15 kills. Freshman setter Kennedy Kurtz led the squad hitting .667 and sophomore middle blocker Madeline Cannon had a good set hitting .500. Junior transfer Lauren Kissell also made her first ever appearance in a game this year hitting .222 in the first set.

Kurtz said her team is lacking in execution and the proper mentality. She stated that they prepare in practice for every game and situation, but when it comes to games they are not getting the job done.

“We’ve done it before in practice a million times, we just have to put it out on the court, I mean we just have to execute well and we’re not executing,” Kurtz said.

The second set had the Hornets hitting their lowest of the match at .118. Junior outside hitter Lauren Aikels hit 1.00, Cannon hit .444 and Kurtz hit .400 in the second set. Kurtz also had a key service ace tying up the score in the second set to 11-11. In this set the Hornets had 34 total attacks and only nine kills.

Morgan Stanley, Sloan Lovett and Lauren Kissell all doubled their number of attacks by the second set. Stanley had 16 attacks, Lovett with 24, and Kissel at 18. Portland took the win in the second set with a score of 19-25.

Aikels attributes the women’s loss to their mindset when approaching the games. “At this point it might just be a mental thing for us, we’re always trying to just test the waters and i feel like we just need to come together as a team.”

The final set had the Hornets hitting .205 with only four errors; their best error count of the match. The women combined for 39 attacks and 12 kills. Kurtz and Cannon both led their team hitting .400 and Aikels wasn’t far behind hitting .333.

Coach Ruben Volta said the women need to do better in the start of the matches instead of waiting until the middle or end to start showing up.

“I’m relatively happy with game three at the end, but i feel like there’s a little less pressure when your down two games to zero, because now you have nothing to lose essentially, so its a matter to start matches better,” Volta said.

Sophomore middle blocker Kendall LaVine felt the Hornet’s loss today was due to the lack of a winners mentality by her team and not transferring how they practice over to how they play in games.

“We have all the skills, we have practice just as long as every other team, we have played together, all of us, just as long as every other team at this point, all it really is going to come down to is hard work and mentality of winning,” LaVine said.