THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. -- It had to end at some point, the Occidental College women's volleyball team just wishes it wasn't now.

After the best run the program's had since 1992, Oxy (22-9) fell in a five-set thriller to Colorado College 18-25, 25-17, 25-18, 23-25, 15-13, ending its season in the NCAA Division III West Region semi final at Cal Lutheran University.

Occidental was able to overcome adversity in its previous two matches--rallying to wins after losing consecutive sets to Cal Lu in the SCIAC championship and in the first round against Pacific Lutheran University--but in the fifth set on Saturday, Oxy ran out of steam against the region's top seed.

Just a game earlier, they were again facing a 2-1 hole and responded by winning the fourth.

"I told them, 'we were in the situation just yesterday and we know how to battle back and we just need to take what we did yesterday and have heart and pride in our program and in ourselves," Occidental coach Heather Collins said. "And just to take it point by point, and that we'd be successful that way.'"

In the fifth set, no team led by more than three points during the fifth game and it looked like Oxy might mimic the magic that got them to the second round.

Then, Kasey Rose (Los Olivos, CA), who arguably had the best month of any Tiger, earning the SCIAC Female Student-Athlete of the Week Award and leading Oxy in kills in its last four games, had her serve go out of bounds for the final point.

Rose and Logan Boyer-Hayse (Boulder, CO) were as good as they have been against Colorado College (33-6) as they've been throughout the final month of the season, teaming up for 29 kills from the outside and Madyson Cassidy wowed with some impressive defense.

Cassidy kept plays alive, then had two of her three aces in Game 4 to help Oxy send the match to a fifth set. Boyer-Hayse, despite playing on a sore ankle she sprained during the team's practice earlier in the day, showed why she was an All-Region selection, with three of her team-high 16 kills in the final game to tie the score three different times.

Laura Goldsmith (Pacific Palasades, CA) led Colorado College (33-6) and the game with 17 kills. Alyssa Mort (Tucson, AZ) had seven kills, Katie Wiese (Denver, CO) had six and Oxy setter Jessie Altman (La Jolla, CA) had 28 assists.

Oxy just came up a little short.

When the pain of losing a close contest subsides though, the 2011 Tigers can reflect on a season of Oxy firsts.

The first team to win a SCIAC tournament title. The first team to beat Cal Lutheran since 2003 (and they beat them twice, winning the season series 2-1). The first team to make the NCAA tournament since 1992.

And they did it all under a first-year head coach.

Collins led Oxy to seven wins in-a-row down the stretch, cementing the Tigers season as one of the best Occidental's had since the 1980s and one of the best in school history.

"It's a great honor for them to be here and they need to be proud for getting to the NCAAs, and they should not look past that," Collins said. "But going into the spring we have to realize that you can't wait for anyone else. ...We need to be more aggressive."