The Hornets, who hit .311 as a team (the second-best mark of the season), won during the regular season in Cheney, Wash., for the first time since the 2001 season. Sacramento State, which lost to Portland State last night for the first time since the 1988 season, limited Eastern Washington to a .190 hitting percentage and tallied 9.0 team blocks.

Sacramento State or Eastern Washington has won the Big Sky’s regular-season title each of the last eight years, and the Hornets have defeated the Eagles in Cheney in the Big Sky Tournament championship three-consecutive years. With the victory, the Hornets have won 10 of their last 12 matches while improving to 11-7 overall and 3-1 in the conference. With the loss, Eastern Washington dropped to 10-5 and 2-2 in the Big Sky.

Arts continued her torrid pace as the middle hitter has now hit at least .400 in four-consecutive matches and raised her season hitting percentage to .315. Arts had just two errors in 27 total attacks to lead a Hornet offensive attack which saw five of the team’s six starters hit better than .300. Arts, who has now recorded 12 matches with double figures in kills, is hitting .449 (52-8-98) over her last four matches.

Sophomore Jennifer Ferguson added 10 kills, a .346 hitting percentage and 14 digs while sophomores Michelle Franz (seven kills, .333 hitting percentage, three blocks) and Lindsay Haupt (seven kills, .312 hitting percentage, team-high five blocks), juniors Atlee Hubbard (nine kills, 10 digs, three blocks) and Kristin Lutes (team-high 16 digs), and seniors Natalie Melcher (three kills, 25 assists, three digs and two blocks) and Mallory Hook (11 digs) also factored in heavily in the victory.

As a team, the Hornets committed just 11 errors in 132 attacks with that mark tying the team’s lowest amount of errors in a match this season.

Eastern Washington was led by Lizzy Mellor’s 15 kills while Ashley Jensen (11) and Addie Webster (11) also tallied double-figure kills for the Eagles.

Sacramento State begins a season-long four-match homestand next week with contests against Weber State (Thursday, Oct. 6, 7 p.m.), Idaho State (Saturday, Oct. 8, 1 p.m.) and Bucknell (Sunday, Oct. 9, 2 p.m.).