BOXSCORE: Colorado State-Northern Colorado
POSTGAME QUOTES: Benson, Lichtenberg, Raguse, Smith

GREELEY, Colo. -- There were plenty of lessons to be learned from Northern Colorado's loss to instate rival Colorado State on Tuesday night at Butler-Hancock Sports Pavilion.

And head coach Lyndsey Benson didn't waste any time in relaying that message to her team following the 3-1 defeat.

When the final point fell in the Rams' favor for a 25-19 clinching, fourth-set victory, Benson exchanged cordials with Colorado State's coaching staff and then huddled her Bears (10-4, 4-1 Big Sky Conference).

But the message wasn't all doom and gloom.

Northern Colorado had, after all, just played against the No. 13 team in the country -- 14 wins this season, All-Americans in the lineup, 11-straight NCAA Tournament berths, all that.

There definitely were some areas where Northern Colorado could have been better against the Rams, but there were also a lot of positives to be gleaned from the Bears' 28-26, 13-25, 20-25, 19-25 defeat.

Namely that first-set victory, where Benson's crew was some kind of hot coming out of the gates and sent the announced crowd of 1,216 -- a season high -- into a frenzy.

"I don’t know what (CSU) expected coming in," Benson said. "It’s hard to tell with a nonconference opponent, when you haven’t played similar opponents -- they didn’t know what to expect from us, we didn’t know what to expect from them.

"But the first game is always a guessing game for both sides. We were tough to finish that game one, because they (the Rams) certainly had opportunities to win it. I loved how we battled in game one. That’s going to benefit us later on -- not to just compete with them, but to finish that game one was a huge confidence boost for our team.”

And if the Rams (14-1, 4-1 Mountain West Conference) were in need of a Greeley wake-up call, the thrilling back-and-forth victory definitely got them stirring -- they cruised to a 12-point victory and seemed to have the match in hand heading into intermission.

“CSU challenged us at the beginning of game two, and we took a step backward and didn’t push back," Benson said. "And that was the momentum shift in the match. That was disappointing to see on our side, because that was the first time I’ve seen us on defense take a step back and let them go on a big run. We came back, though, and that was a good sign on our side -- that we bounced back and didn’t just let them keep attacking us.”

Benson and her assistant coaches earned their stripes in the locker room at intermission. After taking the Rams' second-game punch to the chin, Benson, and assistants Jenny Glenn, Tom Hunter and Dulcie Stone led the Bears back out onto the court, where they gave Colorado State, winners of 10 straight coming in, all it wanted.

It was another lesson learned and another breakthrough for a Northern Colorado team that has already demolished so many barriers this season.

Now, if they can just find a way to bottle up that hair-on-fire intensity that was on display in the first set ...

“We’ve been preparing for this match for a long time and got really pumped up and ready to go," junior middle blocker Taylor Smith said. "And our adrenaline really propelled us in that first victory. But we didn’t have that in the second game. And we’re a steady team, and we’ve been able to do that in previous matches. But we gave so much in that first match tonight, and it didn’t carry over as much as we expected.”

The Bears know they'll probably not face a more daunting task than the one they stared down in Colorado State, and that knowledge can only mean good things for a team that entered the match on a three-match winning streak in the Big Sky and within mere percentage points of first-place Portland State.

They'll go on the road this weekend to take on the Weber State Wildcats and the Idaho State Bengals. And if they carry with them the lessons and confidence they got from Tuesday night's instate-rivalry clash, they'll be in good shape -- and in prime Big Sky position.

And, in the end, that's all that really matters. Nothing was truly hurt Tuesday night inside Butler-Hancock.

“We stuck with a great team -- one of the best in the country," sophomore outside hitter Ashley Lichtenberg said, "so I think we’re definitely ready to face Weber State and Idaho State.”