SF State’s volleyball team picked up a crucial home win over the visiting Chico State Wildcats in four sets last night at the swamp.

Behind a strong performance from Jaclyn Clark, who had eight kills in the first set, the Gators edged out a resilient Wildcat team with a 25-23 win in the first set.

“We were playing as a team, and we controlled and focused on our side of the net and that really helped us,” Clark said. “We weren’t too concerned about what they were doing.”

In the second set the Gators played near perfect volleyball with great defense and mistake free offense, and took a commanding 2-0 set lead. The Gators won the frame 25-18.

Head coach Jill Muhe was pleased by the way the team performed in the first two frames and carried momentum into halftime.

“We were passing really well, and we were blocking very disciplined, and when you do those two things, the offensive portion of the match then becomes a lot easier to do,” Muhe said.

The Wildcats came out with more fight in the third set, giving the Gators a run in a back and fourth set. The Gators made a late push at the end, but couldn’t overcome the momentum Chico State built up throughout the set and lost 18-25.

“Coach’s motto is that the toughest thing to do is beat a team in three, so they came out really fast after the second set and I think we were playing a little bit slower,” Jacquie Brice said. “Once we kicked it back into gear I think we did way better.”

The Gators regained momentum in the fourth set when they came out strong and took an early 7-2 lead over the Wildcats. Chico was unable to fight back and lost the set by a large margin of 25-13. This gave the Gators the 3-1 match win, and its seventh win of the season.

The Gators will look to win its first back-to-back game this season when it hosts Cal State Stanislaus at the swamp today.

“We need to win a Saturday game, so we’re going to try and go all out and play the way we played tonight and focus,” Clark said.