The Sacramento State volleyball team has won eight straight as the Hornets swept Idaho State in their last home match of the regular season on Saturday.

Sac State finishes the regular season with a 9-1 home record and remains undefeated against Big Sky Conference opponents at home. The Hornets only lost one match at the Hornets Nest all season against Santa Clara University on Sept. 19.

“I was really happy with how we played tonight,” said coach Ruben Volta. “We were really aggressive and I’m very happy with my team.”

The Hornets took Idaho State’s second place spot and improved their record to 11-3 in the Big Sky Conference and 24-5 overall. Since Sac State swept Idaho State, the Hornets own the tiebreaker if both teams finish with identical conference records.

Sac State has two matches left in the season before entering the Big Sky Tournament. The team with the best conference record between the North and South division will host the tournament, and Northern Arizona currently holds the best conference record at 13-1.

The one conference loss for Northern Arizona came from the Hornets on Sept. 26 at the Nest. The Hornets will face Northern Arizona next Thursday at 6 p.m. in hopes of taking that first place spot. If Sac State won that match, the team would still need Northern Arizona to lose its following match against Portland State (8-18 overall, 4-10 Big Sky) to host the Big Sky Tournament.

Gaining a win from a very tough Idaho State team was the first step. The Hornets lost their last meeting with Idaho State 3-1 on Oct. 1. The match was senior night, which recognized seniors Lauren Aikels, Sloan Lovett and Lauren Kissell.

Lovett took advantage of it possibly being her last time playing on home turf and had a season best .419 hitting percentage. She led the team in kills with 17, which was one shy of tying her season best as well.

“This experience has been amazing,” Lovett said. “[The] best experience of my life. It has taught me so much on and off the court.”

The other senior outside hitter, Kissell, also had a strong outing with 13 kills and a hitting percentage of .355. She extended her streak of consecutive games with 10 or more kills to 18 straight matches.

“I’m really happy with it,” Kissell said. “It’s good to go out with a bang. It’s my last year and it’s nice to feel good after every match. I have to give a lot of that to my team.”

The next match will be against first place Northern Arizona at 6 p.m. Thursday on the road.