The Sacramento State volleyball team defeated Northern Colorado in three tight sets, snapping the Bears' eight-match Big Sky Conference winning streak Thursday night at Bank of Colorado Arena in Greeley.
The visiting Hornets won 25-20, 25-23 and 28-26 to hand UNC its first loss in more than a month while becoming only the second team to sweep the Bears in three sets this season.
UNC's winning streak started Oct. 4 with a three-set win over Northern Arizona and included seven 3-0 victories. The only match to go beyond three sets was a 3-2 road win over Sacramento State on Oct. 12.
Longtime Sacramento State coach Ruben Volta said his team and UNC are "two pretty evenly matched teams." Volta said the Hornets played an aggressive style of volleyball on Thursday night, and remained steady when UNC responded with its attack.
"We just didn't let it stress us out," said Volta, in his 17th season. "And tonight, I thought we did a much better job than we did at our place, let's say, of just using the block and hitting around the block a little more aggressively."
The Hornets (8-3 Big Sky and 15-9 overall) turned in a better hitting percentage than the Bears (.378 to .219) and committed fewer attack errors. Sacramento State had 11 attack errors to 17 for UNC.
Outside hitters Bridgette Smith and Caitlin Volkmann led Sacramento State with 19 and 14 kills, respectively. They came into the match as the top two players in kills in the Big Sky. Smith averaged 3.89 per set (342 in 88 sets). Volkmann averaged 3.69 kills per set with 325 kills in 88 sets.
Volkmann is a senior from Longmont and Silver Creek High School. She played club volleyball with NORCO Volleyball based in Windsor. Volkmann also had six errors for a .205 hitting percentage and four service errors against UNC.
UNC's only other Big Sky loss this season was to Idaho State in five sets Sept. 28 at home. The Bears (9-2 Big Sky, 18-6 overall) were swept by Mississippi at home Sept. 7 playing its fourth match in three days during their UNC Classic.
Volta said the teams' first match in October in Sacramento was a reverse of Thursday's night's meeting. Last month, the Hornets had more trouble stopping UNC's attack.
"We made it tough," Volta said of the Bears' five-set win last month. "We're just two really evenly matched teams. Gabi Placide, she's one of the best attackers in the conference, and obviously the middles could attack really well."
Placide had a team-best 14 kills for UNC. She had seven errors on 40 total attacks for a .175 hitting percentage, which was one of her lowest of the season. Before the match, Placide ranked fifth in the Big Sky in kills with 301 and an average of 3.42 per set. Placide also had six digs.
UNC coach Lyndsey Oates said her team needed to be better in end-game situations against Sacramento State. Oates said she was bothered by the type of errors the Bears committed.
"Sometimes it's a lack of aggressiveness, and sometimes it's trying to do too much," said Oates, who is in her 20th season as head coach.
Setter Syd Cole had 29 assists and went over 4,000 assists for her career at UNC. Cole is a graduate student and fifth-year player from Parker.
The Bears plowed through the conference season to this point and grabbed first place mostly against teams in the middle or toward the bottom of the standings, Oates said. She identified Idaho State, Sacramento State and Weber State as the top three teams in the conference.
The Bears split the two regular-season matches with Sacramento State, lost to Idaho State in the teams' only match to date and play Weber State for the first next week.
UNC plays Idaho State and Weber State on the road Nov. 14 and 16.
"So I was a little afraid our team would be thinking we're rolling too much, and we hadn't been challenged since our last match at Sac State, the way that we needed to be," Oates said. "You know, we're in the end-game with those other teams, and they were the team making the error. That was us tonight."