To advance to its first Elite Eight since 1987, the Kentucky volleyball team needed to beat the NCAA Tournament's top seed, needed to knock off a Texas team that hadn't lost since Sept. 28 and hadn't dropped a set since Nov. 26.

The Wildcats couldn't do it. But UK made it to the brink of an upset Friday at Memorial Coliseum, falling short 3-1 (25-23,22-25, 27-25, 25-23) to one of the nation's top teams.

"We just gained a lot of respect from that game," junior libero Stephanie Klefot said, fighting back tears. "No one expected us to give them a run for their money and we did, and if anyone else underestimates us then they're stupid."

For four sets, Kentucky (28-6) went toe-to-toe with top-seeded Texas (26-4). UK had 62 kills to Texas' 63. The Cats had 60 set assists, the Longhorns 59.

"I expected a lot of things in this match and a lot of things could have gone different ways, I didn't expect it to be as evenly matched in terms of statistics," UK head coach Craig Skinner said. "The one thing I did not expect tonight was for Texas to play the floor defense they did. We hit some rockets and they came up with them and that was probably the difference in the match. What a volleyball match."

UK showed Texas it wouldn't back down in the first set by matching Texas point for point until Texas used a 3-1 run to win the set. The first-set loss put the Cats in a deeper hole; Texas is 22-0 this season when winning the opening set.

After winning the second set, UK found themselves down six early in the third set, only to fight back and tie the game at 25, forcing the game into volleyball's equivalent of overtime, where teams must win by two.

The predominantly blue crowd of 4,022 began to cheer "Go Big Blue!" creating a hostile environment but Texas edged the Cats to the brink of elimination.

"There's no way this team's going to give up, absolutely no way, they're so tough, so resilient," Skinner said. "As an athlete you need to be in the moment, and there's no team that's ever done that better than this group. I wasn't worried about how we'd respond after the third set."

The Cats responded with an early 10-9 lead, and the fifth set featured 11 lead changes before Texas held on to win 25-23 and end UK's season.

"This match could have gone either way, but we made some plays at the end," Texas head coach Jerritt Elliott said. "This was an amazing match. This was the best team we've faced all year. I thought they were the most consistent team. They never let us off the hook and there weren't a lot of runs."

And although UK will have to wait another season before trying to return to the Elite Eight, Skinner believes this was one of the best teams he's had in his seven seasons as head coach.

"None of (my past teams) have topped this group in terms of everyday was an absolute joy to be in the gym, be around them, coach them, train them, push them, challenge them, they took everything and wanted more," Skinner said. "These kids are so selfless it's unbelievable. I'll never forget this year."

The future continues to look bright for UK volleyball, it will return its two of its top leaders in kills, Ashley Frazier and Lauren O'Conner, starting libero Klefot, and key pieces of its back row.

Skinner believes UK volleyball continues to take small steps to becoming one of the nation's best programs.

"We're talking about building a championship program and there's step and we took a small step, it's disappointing not winning," said Skinner, whose teams have reached the NCAA Tournament in each of his seven seasons at UK. "I don't think there's a player in the locker room who didn't think we could win that match. People that saw that match, that's about as high-level volleyball as you can play."