The Sacramento State volleyball team made quick work of the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks, winning 3-1 on Thursday, keeping the Lumberjacks winless in conference play.

In the final game of their homestand, the Hornets were defeated by the Northern Colorado Bears in a batter to the end on Saturday, losing 2-3 to end their undefeated streak at home.

With the loss, the Hornets move to 4-1 in Big Sky conference play and a three way tie for first place with Idaho State and Northern Colorado.

Thursday: Sac State: 3, Northern Arizona: 1

Sac State went into this match looking to prevent the Lumberjacks from getting their first win of conference play.

“We knew this was going to be a big game, so we came in with a lot of energy,” senior outside hitter Caitlin Volkmann said. “We started strong and I feel like we fought hard to get there.”

Sac State took advantage of 10 Lumberjack errors in the first set compared to the Hornets’ three, going on three separate scoring runs started by the Lumberjacks’ errors.

“They were trying to serve us tough because our offense is pretty good and they were missing a lot at first,” Sac State head coach Ruben Volta said. “As the match went on, their serving got better and we had to hang in there and pass some tough serves.”

The Hornets made a heads up play when junior setter Kate Doorn dumped the ball over the net and Lumberjacks’ graduate student outside hitter Taylor Jacobsen and redshirt freshman setter Karya Suvarioglu weren’t able to keep it alive at the attack line, giving the Hornets a 14-5 lead.

The Hornets won the set 25-15 on a kill by senior outside hitter Bridgette Smith that deflected off the hands of Lumberjacks’ fifth year opposite hitter Savannah Bloom and senior middle blocker Kendall Robertson and landed out of bounds.

The Lumberjacks kept the match closer in the early part of the second set, scoring off of six kills with three coming from Jacobsen.

With the score tied up at seven, Smith had a point-saving, one handed bump near the scores table to get the ball back over the net, before being set up for a dink just over Robertson.

The Hornets continued to capitalize on Northern Arizona’s attack errors and went on a few small scoring runs.

The seven-point second set win came on a Jacobsen attempted kill that was hit too hard and landed past the end line.

A sideline kill by Northern Arizona’s Robertson allowed the Lumberjacks to gain momentum in the third set leading to a 8-0 scoring run giving them the 17-11 lead.

Lumberjacks’ junior setter Keira Hall had three consecutive service aces directed towards Volkmann that she wasn’t able to control.

Volkmann cut the game to a score with two service aces, but a service error straight into the net gave the Lumberjacks the 23-25 set win.

“After losing, it’s like okay, that’s not happening again,” Volkmann said. “We can play better than that, so we were just determined to just finish it in four.”

The fourth set started out back and forth, but once it hit 12-12, the Hornets took the lead and never looked back.

The momentum shift came with a block assist by senior outside hitter Ellie Tisko and junior middle blocker Ashlynn Archer. The Hornets secured the 25-21 fourth set win on a kill by Smith that Lumberjacks’ graduate student libero Millie O’Ketter couldn’t control and landed cross-court, out of bounds.

“It feels awesome, we have a hard opponent on Saturday, but we just got to keep this momentum going forward,” Smith said.

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Saturday: Sac State: 2, Northern Colorado: 3

The Hornets who are undefeated at home took on the Northern Colorado Bears at The Nest looking to break the Bears undefeated road streak.

The match was even in every statistical category, the only differences were the Hornets’ .170 hitting percentage and 65 digs compared to the Bears’ .205 hitting percentage and 82 digs.

Sac State found themselves down early, facing an 0-2 deficit while the Bears controlled the momentum. After making some adjustments they put up a fight till the very end.

“We came out after the little break between sets two and three and we were determined,” Archer said. “We’re playing our game, we’re getting after it, we’re not just going to give them any points or hand them the game.”

In the first two sets, the Hornets struggled defensively, committing multiple errors and they only had one block, but they were able to turn it around and got 10 blocks through the next three sets.

“What really turned our game around was our defense,” Archer said. “We started digging a lot of balls and a lot more block touches.”

A Bears block on Smith’s attempted kill was initially effective, but she stayed with it and landed a kill in between two diving Bears, giving the Hornets the momentum.

The Hornets kept this up for a 6-0 scoring run continued with a handful of kills, a service ace and attack error by the Bears’ sophomore outside hitter Alayna Tessena.

“We started the match off just a little behind the game and not anticipating stuff going up,” Volta said. “Once they got into the match a little more, I think the adrenaline started going and then you just start seeing things a little more clearly.”

In the fourth set a late 4-0 scoring run led by Archer’s two service aces, one of which Northern Colorado’s graduate student libero Sam Steele couldn’t keep alive with a one-handed bump, gave Sac State match point.

The Hornets won the fourth set 25-20 on a Volkmann kill as the Bears’ sophomore defensive specialist Bella LePore dove to her right to attempt a one-handed bump on the sideline.

Tisko gave the Hornets match point in the final set with a campfire in between Steele and LePore.

At the end of the fifth set, there was a controversial call, where a would-be game-winning kill by Volkmann was called a lift.

The Hornets were stuck on match point for four consecutive plays before the Bears inched back in on some Hornet attack errors, losing 15-17 on a pair of kills just out of the reach of junior libero Abbey Kadillak.

“I’m excited to see them again at their court,” Smith said. “I hope they know what’s coming to them.”

The Hornets will head to the road to take on Portland State at 7 p.m. on Friday in the first match of a three game road trip.