The Hornet’s women’s volleyball team put up a fight against the Idaho State Bengals tonight, falling short with a final score of 3-1(25-11, 24-26, 25-23, 25-16).

The first set of the match was the Hornet’s worse performance of the night. With a score of 25-11 and hitting only .030. Freshman Shannon Boyle led Sac State hitting .333. The team had a total of 33 attacks, 7 kills and 6 errors. With the Bengals hitting .379 in the first set, the Hornet’s took a quick loss. 

Head coach Ruben Volta stated the Hornet’s first set was a result of them coming out to play really flat and letting easy points slip away from them. 

“I was really happy with how we responded the next game and we played a lot better,” Volta said.

The second set showed Sac State’s ability to bounce back winning this set with a score of 24-26. This set held the Hornet’s highest hitting percentage at .278. With 5 errors, 36 attacks and 15 kills the team showed a significant improvement. Junior outside hitter Sloan Lovett led her team in this set with five kills and 10 attacks. Sophomore middle blocker Kendall LaVine hit the highest in this set at .429.

Junior outside hitter Lauren Aikels said that after the first set the Hornet’s changed their mindset and approach to the game which helped them fight back.

“We knew that we just had to come out and just be ready for anything,” Aikels said.

The third set was another close game with the Bengals pulling through for the win at 25-23. 

Sac State fought hard, at one point being down 24-18 and coming back to almost tying Idaho State at 24-23. 

Aikels and Lovett both led their team in the third set hitting .267. The team had a total of 11 kills and only four errors, their least amount of errors of the entire match.

The fourth and final set was another win for the Bengals at 25-16. The Hornets had ten errors and only six kills. Lovett led the team by the fourth set with a total of 17 kills and 37 attacks. 

Lovett felt the first set and overall loss is attributed to the team playing too cautious.

“We’re getting into our heads and really just need to be confident in ourselves and then we’ll play a lot better,” Lovett said.

LaVine shared that her team has been focusing on approaching every game confidently and pushing one another to be their best.

“We just need to focus on bringing that every time we step on the court,” LaVine said. 

The result of tonight’s game left the Bengals at a 3-0 standing in the Big Sky Conference. The Hornet’s are now 0-3 in conference and 5-13 overall.