The Sacramento State volleyball team defeated the University of Nevada, Reno three sets to one (25-19, 20-25, 25-21, 25-20) on the opening day of the Sacramento State Invitational.

The Hornets’ 11th straight victory improved their record to 12-1 on the season, tied for the best start in school history. Only the 1995 team has had a 12-1 start to a year.

This match was only the second home match the Hornets have had this season, coming off of a road win at UC Davis on Tuesday. Nevada was coming off of a three game winning streak themselves, but could not hold off Sac State’s offense, led by Lauren Kissell and Sloan Lovett. Kissell continued her strong start to the season with 22 kills and a hitting percentage of .409.

“I‘m ecstatic about it, it’s a great turnaround from last year…this year is coming together and I think we couldn’t have a better team out there right now,” said Kissell of the team’s start to the season.

The first set was hard fought between the two teams with five lead changes before Sac State finally put it away 25-19. Kissell led the charge with seven kills. Lexie Skalbeck led the team in digs with nine.

Nevada made a push in the second set, defeating the Hornets 25-20.

“They were a good team, they fought back really hard, we just had to deal with them being able to dig our hits and keep hitting hard,” said Lovett about the turnaround after the second set.

Sac State got back on track in the third set, winning 25-21. They would kept the lead the entirety of the match, at one point possessing a 17-9 lead.

The Hornets had found a rhythm by the fourth set with the final score of 25-20. They jumped out to a 5-0 lead but Nevada fought back to eventually take the lead late in the set at 17-16. Kissell responded a spike that tied the match back at 17, and that proved to be just the spark the team needed to close the door on a Nevada comeback.

As a team, Sac State had a hitting percentage of .287 along with 70 digs and four blocks. The Wolfpack had a .245 hitting percentage, 67 digs and ten blocks.

The team will move on to face Kent State (5-5) at 12:30 p.m. tomorrow and finish their night with Santa Clara University (7-3) at 7:30 p.m. Kent State was swept earlier in the tournament by Santa Clara. Kent State is 5-5 on the season.