Only a fool in the crowd at the UW Field House on Friday night thought the fifth game of the volleyball match between the Wisconsin Badgers and Minnesota Golden Gophers would go the regulation 15 points.

Not after watching the two teams claw their way through four ferocious games.

Both teams made plenty of mistakes — the Badgers committed 16 service errors and eight service return errors. But both delivered exciting rallies, leaving the crowd  of 5,644 on the edge of their benches.

It finally ended after 2 hours, 25 minutes when Janielle Gabrielsen's attack went into the heart of the block of Gophers Katie Vatterodt and Lauren Gibbemeyer, leaving the Badgers with a 18-25, 25-18, 25-27, 31-29, 19-17 loss that dimmed their dream of a 13th straight trip to the NCAA tournament.

"It was a big one against a very good team," UW coach Pete Waite said. "The way we battled tonight showed us that we played with more fire than we have all season. We're not done by far."

After the teams exchanged 25-18 victories in the first two games, the real match got under way with the Badgers (16-11 overall, 6-9 Big Ten) grabbing a 27-25 victory in the third and the No. 15 Gophers (21-6 overall, 11-4 in the Big Ten) surviving two match points to take a 31-29 victory in the fourth.

Those two games were so close neither team had a chance to relax. It wasn't until the Badgers grabbed a 16-14 lead in the third that either team had more than a one-point lead. There were 14 ties up to that point.

The Gophers survived two set points to eventually take a 25-24 lead. But Audra Jeffers and Brittney Dolgner put down kills to give UW its 2-1 lead. Dolgner finished with 27 kills and Jeffers had 12.

The mounting errors, though, continued to hurt and cost UW the fourth game. The Badgers committed five unforced errors, including two double hits and two service errors in the game. A botched set also set up an attack error when the Badgers had a chance to win it 28-26.

"When it goes to extra points like that, you know it's a battle out there," Waite said.

Similar errors cost UW four points in the deciding game, a trend the Badgers have not been able to escape this season. Most disturbing were the serve mistakes that left the Gophers with a seven-point advantage in that department — it's a category the Badgers have surrendered to their opponents all season.

"We work on it all the time," Waite said of serving. "It's a matter of staying composed and staying with your proper technique.

"We have to understand when we have 16 and they have nine, that's a lot of points."

The Badgers, who now may need as many as four wins in their final five games to reach the NCAA tournament, face Iowa on Sunday at the Field House and then hit the road for matches against Indiana and No. 1 Penn State next weekend. They close with home matches against No. 16 Illinois and No. 18 Purdue.