PROVO -- The BYU women's volleyball team came up just short in a bid to upset the nationally ranked Colorado State Rams Friday night, falling 30-18, 25-30, 34-36, 15-17. With the loss, the Cougars fall to 16-10 overall and 8-5 in Mountain West Conference play.

BYU head coach Karen Lamb was happy with her team's performance and how they fought till the end.

"I'm really proud of our team," Lamb said. "I'm disappointed we lost but I'm not disappointed in them. We battled and battled and battled and earned this win but it didn't go our way."

Down two games to one, BYU stormed back in game four to force a fifth. Despite having the 14-13 advantage, the Cougars were unable to convert, losing the final game 17-15. Colorado State now stands at 21-3 overall and 12-1 in the MWC.

Despite the loss, various Cougars had big nights, including Lindsey Hartsock who finished with 14 kills and a career-high 13 blocks. Lauren Richards added 48 assists, a career-high 13 blocks, seven digs, and seven kills while Lindsey Metcalf contributed a team-high 15 kills, 17 digs, and six blocks. Lindsey Evans led the team with 21 digs while Kim Wilson and April Varner each had 17 and 16 digs, respectively.

Game one was all BYU as the Cougars dominated the Rams 30-18. With the score tied at five, BYU went on a 15-4 run to go up 20-9 and from there, the Cougars coasted to the win. Hartsock led a balanced attack, picking up five kills and two blocks. Richards was all over the court, recording three kills, nine assists, three digs, and three blocks.

The Cougars carried their momentum into the second game, jumping out to a 12-7 lead behind a balanced offensive attack and two Hartsock blocks. Colorado State fought back, tying the game at 18. BYU then went up 22-19 only to see the Rams come back to tie the score at 22 and go on to win 30-25. Tess Rogers led the Colorado State comeback with seven kills while April Varner tallied four kills and Hartsock added four blocks for the Cougars.

Both squads came out determined to take game three, trading leads and ties with neither team gaining more than a two-point advantage. BYU was finally able to pull away, leading 26-22 and 29-25. The Rams were able to claw their way back in, saving four Cougar game points to tie the score at 29. The teams traded points until BYU had a 34-33 advantage. Colorado State then scored the next three points on two kills and a block to take the game, 36-34. Hartsock had five kills and two blocks to lead the Cougars in game three while Rogers had six kills and Shirley-Cahoon had five for the Rams.

With the fourth game tied at five, BYU took off on a 12-4 run to take a 17-9 lead. The Rams refused to go down easily, going on a few mini-runs of their own to make things interesting at the end, pulling within 28-25. A kill by Kim Wilson put the Cougars up 29-25, setting up the game point, which BYU got when Lexi Brown's serve was mishandled. Hartsock again came up big for the Cougars, contributing five kills and two blocks.

Erica Lott started things off right for BYU in the fifth with a kill on the game's first point. He Rams then reeled off four strait points, forcing a Cougar timeout. BYU came out fired up, tying the game at four behind two Brown kills and a Colorado State hitting error. The Rams then went on another run to go up 9-5 before BYU scored seven consecutive to take a 12-9 lead. After Colorado tied the game at 12, the Cougars gained a 14-13 advantage. BYU was unable to convert on match point and yielded four of the next five points to the Rams, who won the game 17-15.

Even with the loss, Lamb feels the Cougars are making strides and are prepared for the conference tournament.

"Now we need to take our minds off it and take the next step with a win tomorrow night," Lamb said. "I'm really pleased we're playing well right now. It gives us confidence for the tournament."

BYU will conclude conference regular season play Saturday at 7 p.m. in the Smith Fieldhouse against Wyoming.

                              Volleyball Box Score
                        Brigham Young University Cougars
           Colorado State vs Brigham Young (Nov 12, 2004 at Provo UT)
    Colorado State         |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1  WHITNEY, Katherine..  5|  0   2   3 -.667|  2|  0   1|  1| 11| 0  0  0|  0|   0.0
 4  ROGERS, Tess........  5| 21  12  58  .155|  0|  3   1|  1|  6| 3  2  0|  0|  28.0
 9  COURTNEY, Melissa...  5|  0   1   8 -.125| 58|  1   6|  0|  6| 1  1  0|  1|   2.5
 10 SARAUER, Becky......  5| 10  18  54 -.148|  0|  1   0|  1|  4| 2  0  0|  0|  13.0
 11 SHIRLEY-CAHOON,Katie  5| 17   3  31  .452|  0|  1   0|  3| 10| 0  1  0|  0|  18.5
 15 FRECH, Bri..........  5|  9   8  30  .033|  3|  2   1|  0| 15| 2  4  0|  0|  15.0
 7  MOKELKI, Tonya......  1|  2   0   4  .500|  0|  0   0|  0|  0| 0  0  0|  0|   2.0
 16 KARLIK, Kristen.....  5|  0   0   0  .000|  0|  0   2|  1| 14| 0  0  0|  1|   0.0
 17 DOWNS, Dre..........  5| 15   4  34  .324|  0|  0   0|  0|  1| 0  2  0|  0|  16.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  5| 74  48 222  .117| 63|  8  11|  7| 67| 8 10  0|  2|  95.0
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 13.0
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  13 10  40  .075   GAME SCORES               1  2  3  4  5  TEAM RECORDS
   2  20  9  56  .196   Colorado State...... (3) 18 30 36 25 17  21-3,12-1 MWC
   3  20 11  55  .164   Brigham Young....... (2) 30 25 34 30 15  16-10,8-5 MWC
   4  12 11  43  .023
   5   9  7  28  .071
    Brigham Young          |     ATTACK      |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF|  BLOCK |GEN
 ## Name                 GP|  K   E  TA   PCT|  A| SA  SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3  VARNER, April.......  5|  5   2  17  .176|  2|  0   1|  3| 16| 0  0  1|  0|   5.0
 5  RICHARDS, Lauren....  5|  7   5  20  .100| 48|  3   2|  0|  7| 1 12  1|  1|  17.0
 6  METCALF, Lindsey....  5| 15   2  31  .419|  3|  1   0|  0| 17| 0  6  0|  0|  19.0
 7  WILSON, Kim.........  5| 10   9  41  .024|  4|  2   1|  1| 17| 1  2  1|  0|  14.0
 9  BROWN, Lexi.........  5|  6   6  21  .000|  0|  1   1|  0|  3| 0  9  0|  0|  11.5
 14 HARTSOCK, Lindsy....  5| 14   1  23  .565|  0|  0   3|  0|  0| 1 12  0|  0|  21.0
 10 LOTT, Erica.........  4|  8   2  21  .286|  0|  0   0|  0|  2| 0  2  0|  0|   9.0
 16 EVANS, Lindsey......  5|  0   1   1-1.000|  2|  0   2|  4| 21| 0  0  0|  1|   0.0
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals..............  5| 65  28 175  .211| 59|  7  10|  8| 83| 3 43  3|  2|  96.5
 TEAM ATTACK PER GAME                               TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 24.5
 Game  K  E  TA   Pct
   1  17  4  28  .464   Site: Provo UT (Smith Fieldhouse)
   2  14  5  42  .214   Date: Nov 12, 2004   Attend: 1205   Time: 2H 50M
   3  15  8  51  .137   Referees: JOHN BARTEN, ANNETTE COTTLE, KAREN MARSHALL
   4  13  7  34  .176
   5   6  4  20  .100
                                         1   2   3   4   5 Total
                        Tie scores       5   3  21   1   7    37
                        Lead changes     3   3   9   2   6    23

PROVO -- With a five-match win streak on the line, the Cougars are set to take on No. 10 Colorado State Friday night and Wyoming Saturday night as their last tune-up before next week's Mountain West Conference Tournament. Both matches will begin at 7 p.m. in the Smith Fieldhouse with Friday's matchup with the Rams broadcast live on KBYU and BYUTV.

"Both of these matches are important to us," said BYU head coach Karen Lamb. "We feel pretty good about ourselves right now. We had two nice matches this weekend and we're doing some really nice things. We're ready to go after Colorado State on Friday."

At 16-9 overall and 8-4 in league action, BYU has a firm grasp on the third seed. A solid showing this weekend will give the Cougars some much-needed momentum heading into the league tournament, being hosted by Colorado State on Nov. 18-20 in Fort Collins, Colo. However, the Cougars will have to get past two tough opponents in the Rams and the Cowgirls. BYU dropped earlier 2004 matches to both teams on the road.

BYU currently ranks in the top three in six of seven statistical categories on the season, including hitting percentage (.279), assists (14.16), blocks (3.26), opponent hitting percentage (.158), kills (15.71) and service aces (1.71). The Cougars lead the league in blocks per game in Conference matches (3.55). Cougar Lauren Richards leads the MWC in aces per game with 0.51 while Lindsy Hartsock is first in blocks per game (1.77) and second in hitting percentage (.387).

In last weekend's matches, the Cougars went 2-0 on the road against MWC opponents UNLV and San Diego State to take over third place in the league. BYU went five games with the Rebels Friday night and then recorded their fifth straight win with a 36-34, 30-15, 30-22 victory over the Aztecs.

Senior Lindsey Metcalf posted the first triple-double of her career against UNLV with 13 kills, 18 digs and 10 blocks while redshirt freshman Lindsey Evans recorded a career-high 33 digs, placing her second all-time at BYU for single-match digs. Lexi Brown also notched a career-high Saturday night with a .733 hitting percentage against SDSU.