With the loss, Sacramento State finished with a 2-1 record and was crowned tournament champions based on a 8-3 games differential tiebreaker. Wisconsin-Milwaukee also finished 2-1 at the tournament, but outscored its opponents, 8-5. Sacramento State (5-5 overall this season), which wins its first tournament of the season, defeated Eastern Illinois and Illinois State for its two victories.

The Hornets had three players named to the all-tournament team comprising freshman Kristin Lutes (named tournament MVP), senior Lisa Beauchene and junior Sandra Bandimere. Beauchene has now been named to three all-tournament teams this year.

Earlier in the day, Sacramento State’s win over Illinois State gave head coach Debby Colberg her 700th career victory. She joined Andy Banachowski (UCLA), Dave Shoji (Hawai’i), Marilyn Nolen (Saint Louis), Russ Rose (Penn State), Mike Hebert (Minnesota) and Kathy Gregory (UC Santa Barbara) as the only active Div. I coaches to achieve 700 career victories.

In the Hornets’ first five-game match of the season, Wisconsin-Milwaukee won the first two games before the Hornets bounded back by taking the next two frames. Sacramento State jumped out to a 7-5 lead in the fifth game, but the Panthers scored 10 of the next 14 points to close the game and match. During the 10-4 Panther run, Sacramento State committed four attack errors and finished the game with a .115 hitting percentage.

Beauchene recorded her third triple-double in the last five matches as the co-captain finished with 10 kills, 56 assists and 16 digs. Lutes tallied a career-high 31 digs, the most by a Hornet since Angela Lewis had 32 against Fresno State on Nov. 23, 1999. Lutes finished the tournament with 60 digs over three matches, good for an astonishing 5.45 digs per game. Bandimere had a team-high 21 kills, the most by a Hornet this season and six shy of her career high (27).

Senior Kazmiera Imrie (17) and freshman Jennifer Ferguson (13 kills and a season-high 22 digs) rounded out the Hornet foursome with double figures in kills. Sacramento State tallied a season-high 112 digs as junior Stephanie Gamst had a career-high 16 and sophomore Mallory Hook added 12.

In the Panthers’ wins in games one, two and five, the team hit .367, .317 and .346, respectively. Wisconsin-Milwaukee hit just .106 and .020 in games three and four. The Panthers hit .225 overall compared to the Hornets’ .174 hitting percentage. Wisconsin-Milwaukee, which avenged last season’s 3-0 loss to Sacramento State, tallied 12.0 team blocks, including six from Rachel Kuebbing.

The Hornets return to action next week as they take part in their fourth tournament in as many weeks at the Comcast Lobo Invitational (Friday-Saturday, Sept. 19-20). Sacramento State will take on Ohio (Sept. 19), Kentucky (Sept. 20) and host New Mexico (Sept. 20) as part of the two-day, three-match tournament.