Sacramento State and Eastern Washington will square for the fifth-straight year and the sixth time in the last seven years in the Big Sky Tournament championship match and the league’s automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament.

The Hornets are 5-1 against the Eagles in Big Sky Tournament championship contests, with three victories coming on Eastern Washington’s home court (2001-04) and two coming in Sacramento (1998, 2000). Eastern Washington won the Big Sky championship on Sacramento State’s home floor in 2001, which was also the last time the Hornets hosted the postseason tournament.

Sacramento State will be seeking its fourth-straight Big Sky Tournament championship and seventh since joining the Big Sky in 1996 (1997-98, 2000, 2002-04). The Hornets, who have won 14 in a row (their longest streak since the 1998 season), improved to 24-7 overall this season. The team has won 23 of its last 25 matches after beginning the year 1-5. Eastern Washington has won seven in a row and hasn’t lost since falling at Sacramento State (3-0) on Oct. 27. The Eagles will bring a 23-8 record into the Big Sky’s championship match and are looking for their third tournament title (1989, 2001).

Sacramento State, which won the Big Sky’s regular-season championship and the right to host the tournament, has swept 12 of the team’s 14 opponents during the winning streak. The Hornets swept Eastern Washington in both meetings between the two teams this season.

In the Hornets’ victory over Montana State, junior Atlee Hubbard led all players with 12 kills and sophomore Lindsay Haupt added 11 kills, six blocks and a .375 hitting percentage as Sacramento State was never challenged. In fact, Montana State’s largest lead of the contest was one point (1-0 advantage in both games two and three) as the Bobcats mustered just a .014 hitting percentage.

Led by junior Kristin Lutes’ 29 digs (four shy of the Big Sky Tournament record for a three-game match), Sacramento State’s defense tallied 74 digs and 10.0 team blocks despite the match lasting just three games. Hubbard added 21 digs and both Mallory Hook and Jennifer Ferguson finished with nine digs.

Montana State had no player finish with more than seven kills as the Bobcats had nearly as many errors (27) as the team had kills (29). Meggie Malyurek’s seven kills and 14 digs led Montana State.

In the early match, Eastern Washington defeated Portland State, 3-1 (30-23, 26-30, 30-21, 34-32), behind Lazy Mellor’s 16 kills, 14 digs and four blocks. The Eagles, who erased a 29-24 deficit in game four, also had Addie Webster (14 kills, 13 digs), Ashley Jensen (14 kills and a match-high eight blocks) and Brittney Page (13 kills, seven digs and five blocks) finish with double figures in kills.

Eastern Washington hit .301 in the match while Portland State hit .211. The Vikings looked to be in control of the fourth game with a 29-24 lead before the Eagles ran off six-straight points to take a 30-29 lead. Portland State’s Jessica Brodie followed with a kill and Stephanie Lavigne added an ace to give the Vikings a 31-30 lead. Both teams exchanged points until a Jessica Vanzant kill tied the game at 32-32. The Vikings then committed consecutive attack errors by Melissa Osterloh and Vanzant, respectively, to give EWU the game and match. Brodie led all players with 23 kills for Portland State.