The Hornet’s fell to Eastern Washington Thursday in five sets with a final score of 3-2 (19-25, 25-22, 25-21, 18-25, 15-12).

The first set was a successful one for Sac State winning and the team recorded only one error. The women hit their second highest of the match at .333 during this set. Madeline Cannon and Shannon Boyle led the Hornets hitting .500. Morgan Stanley was also close behind hitting .417. The team had a total of 36 attacks and 13 kills.

Sophomore Madeline Cannon wants her team to learn to play the way they did in the first set. She said that they need to play the game point by point and keep their confidence high.

“The way we played in the first game with no hitting errors and no serving errors, that’s how you have to play every single match,” Cannon said.

The second set was a win for Eastern Washington at 25-22. The Hornets hit .167 and had their most errors of the match with eight. Stanley led the women hitting .350 with Cannon not far behind with .333. In the second set Sloan Lovett and Cannon made a key block tying up the score at 9-9. The Hornets fought hard in this set but came up short with 30 attacks and 13 kills.

Sophomore Kendall LaVine said the team needs to play their own style and believe in themselves that they are just as good as any other team in conference. She said that confidence throughout the game, especially at home is necessary.

“We need to respect every opponent we play and that we also have to respect ourselves enough and have enough confidence,” LaVine said.

Set three was another close game but Eastern Washington walked away with the win at 25-21. The team hit their lowest at .132 and six errors. LaVine led the women hitting .667. Sac State had a total of 38 attacks, its highest amount of the match and 11 kills.

The fourth set the women hit the highest of the match at .379 and only three errors. With 14 kills and 29 total attacks, the Hornets showed their perseverance tying up the match at 2-2 forcing a fifth set to take place. LaVine led her team hitting .400, Madeline Cannon hit .375 and Morgan Stanley hit .333.

The final set was a close game, ending in a win for Eastern Washington at 15-12. The Hornets had three service errors in this set and hit .286. With 21 attacks and 10 kills, the Hornets ended this set with a game total of 14 service errors overall, matching their season high service error number.

Freshman Kennedy Kurtz said her team should focus on their serving and expect to win every single point. “I think that we need to take away that every point matters because we’ve lost now three games by three or less points,” Kurtz said.

The loss for the Hornets put them at 0-5 in conference and boosted Eastern Washington to 2-3 in the Big Sky.

Coach Ruben Volta feels that his team is still working hard to get over a hump and excel in all areas of the game.

“We’re getting better at a lot of little things, but there’s too many big things that we’re still not good at yet and serving and passing has been a big issue,” Volta said.