Just about every volleyball team in the country looks up to No. 3 Texas.

Literally.

If you want to beat the Longhorns you have to get the ball over the net and through the arms of Jennifer Doris (6-5), Lauren Paolini (6-5), Destinee Hooker (6-4) and Ashley Engle (6-3).

Despite a great effort, Colorado wasn't able to do that consistently enough and lost 25-19, 25-23, 21-25, 25-20 to Texas on Saturday night at the Coors Events Center.

Just don't tell the Buffs that they still can't be giant killers this season.

"They're a good team, but they're honestly nothing special," senior Alex Buth said after finishing with 14 kills and nine digs. "I believe that we should have beaten them tonight and I can't wait to play them again because they're definitely a beatable team. ...

"I'm sure they'll go far this year and stuff, but I don't think they're anything special that we need to be overly concerned about."

The Buffs (9-7, 3-4) finish the regular season against the Longhorns (12-2, 6-1) on Nov. 29 in Austin. CU obviously has some work to do in order to make the rematch meaningful for both teams.

Despite the loss, head coach Pi'i Aiu was encouraged with the way his team competed against one of the nation's elite teams.

"I think we showed a lot of fight," he said. "There's some things we need to work to get a little bit better on, obviously. And I'm not saying we should go out and beat the No. 3 team in the country every night, but we had our shots tonight. I'm really proud of what we did."

Buth led the Buffs' offensive attack with five kills in the first set, which the visitors led wire to wire. The Longhorns stormed out to a 17-10 lead in the second set before CU finally showed some signs of life and rallied to within 21-19 on a block by Schylur Edelman.

After another block by Buth and a kill by Amber Sutherland -- who played her best home match of the season and finished with 15 kills -- the Buffs were within 24-23 before the taller Texans blocked the comeback bid and took a 2-0 lead into the intermission.

"We had a swing at 24-23 to tie it up. Who knows what happens at 24-24?" Aiu wondered aloud. "Anything can happen. So that was a real important swing."

The Buffs were able to finally swing the momentum in set three, which was tied 10 times before a Texas hitting error gave CU its first lead of the match at 16-15.

Emily Sisco put one of her game-high 18 kills away to force a fourth game.

"We did a nice job coming out in game three and staying focused after losing a tight game two," Aiu said. "They're a very talented team and we have to play well to beat them."

CU led 10-9 in the final game before the visitors took control and finished off the match. Both teams had 49 digs and nine team blocks, but longer Longhorns had an easier time attacking at the net.

"I thought we did everything good and got beat by a team that was a little bit better tonight," Aiu said.