PROVO — It was senior night, and the BYU Cougars almost pulled off a huge upset of the Colorado State volleyball team. But they couldn't finish it out with opportunities in the fourth and wound up losing in five 21-25, 25-23, 20-25, 27-25, 15-12.

The Cougars came out strong in taking two of the first three games, but when they had match point at 24-23 in the fourth, the Rams came up with a key kill then finished off with three of the final four points to end the set in their favor, giving themselves a chance to steal the victory in the fifth.

On paper the Cougars looked to be outmatched when the 20-4 Rams came into the gym, but BYU (12-12) came out on fire and took the Rams out of their sets, kept them flustered, and ran off with a 15-10 lead in the first.. Even after CSU came back to tie things up three times in the first game, BYU stayed focused and finished strong, taking Game 1 25-21.

"I really felt like we took them out of their system, out of their comfort zone. But we didn't pounce on it and take advantage of it," said BYU coach Shay Goulding.

After losing Game 2, BYU came back in the third with a vengeance, taking another off the Rams, who had defeated the Cougars in a sweep back in Fort Collins.

"They're a really good team. We ran a good offense. It was a hard match that went the furthest it could go," said BYU setter Kiana Rogers, who played a very solid overall match for the Cougars.

She finished with 49 assists, five service aces, 12 digs, one solo block and seven block assists to give the Cougars good effort from all over the court.

The team still has three road games remaining, two in the Mountain West Conference and one against a ranked opponent in St. Mary's. Without a conference tournament, the team is playing for pride at this point as they have no chance to make the NCAA tournament or to win a conference championship.

"We always say let's finish better than we started. We have nothing to lose, so we might as well just go out there and have fun," added Rogers.

The Cougars have suffered rough times through the MWC season as player after player has gone down with injuries, including senior Kayla Walker, who is back and playing now but far from 100 percent.

"It would have been fantastic to get a nice win tonight. We've been in this spot a couple of times this year where we've been on top and let them back in. But we've had the same type of hard loss in five before, and we don't let it affect us in the next game," said Goulding, who hopes to go on the road and take away victories against Air Force and San Diego State next week.