Sacramento State avenged its loss earlier in the season to Eastern Washington, and gave the Eagles their first conference loss of the year. Coming into the match, the Eagles had won 16 in a row while dropping just five games over that span. With the victory, Sacramento State (19-10, 10-2 Big Sky) moved to within one game of Eastern Washington (19-7, 11-1 Big Sky) in the conference standings with two matches to play.

Next week, Sacramento State travels to Weber State and Idaho State, while Eastern Washington hosts Montana State and Montana to close the regular season. Even though the Hornets swept Eastern Washington in today’s match, the Eagles still hold the tiebreaker by virtue of its 30-19, 30-17, 30-19 victory over Sacramento State on Oct. 12. With the two teams splitting the regular-season series and sweeping each other, the tiebreaker came down to the scoring margin of games between the two teams. Eastern Washington averaged 23.3 points per game in its loss to the Hornets while Sacramento State averaged 18.3 points in its loss.

Without the tiebreaker, Sacramento State needs to win both matches next week and Eastern Washington has to lose both of its matches in order for the Hornets to host the Big Sky Tournament (Nov. 20-22). The regular-season champion earns the right to host the tournament.

Bandimere’s 18 kills accompanied a .382 hitting percentage as she had just five errors in 34 total attacks. Imrie hit .393 with just two errors in 28 attacks as the Hornets hit .291 as a team. After allowing Eastern Washington a .333 hitting percentage the first time the two teams met, Sacramento State limited the Eagles to a .151 mark this time around.

For the Hornets, sophomore Shannon Arts added six kills and a match-high .429 hitting percentage (6-0-14) while junior Emily Wilson had six kills and a match-high six blocks. Senior Lisa Beauchene recorded three kills, 40 assists, 10 digs and four blocks as Sacramento State dominated at the net (10-3 advantage in team blocks).

Sacramento State held the advantage over Eastern Washington in virtually every statistical category, including kills (55-45), hitting percentage (.291-.141) and assists (47-42). Sacramento State freshman libero Kristin Lutes led all players with 15 digs.

Eastern Washington, which did not hit better than .200 in any game during the contest, was led by Courtney Bush and Keva Sonderen who each posted 10 kills. Sonderen (.412) was one of two Eagles’ players to hit better than .300 in the match.

Sacramento State and Eastern Washington have now split the last six meetings against each other. The two teams have faced one another in the Big Sky Tournament championship match each of the last three years. Sacramento State won the championship in 2000 and 2002, while Eastern Washington won in 2001.

The Hornets close the regular season next week with three matches, including a non-conference contest at Pacific on Tuesday, Nov. 11, at 7 p.m. Sacramento State then travels to Weber State (Friday, Nov. 14) and Idaho State (Saturday, Nov. 15). The Hornets have not won at Weber State since the 1999 season.

Hornet seniors Imrie and Beauchene were both honored prior to today’s match for their contributions to the program.