Amber Sutherland wasn't interested in talking about the injury that sent her to the bench twice Friday night.

Colorado's kills leader suffered a painful ankle injury in the third game of the Buffs' second-round NCAA Tournament match against Washington. She had to hop on one leg to the bench, where her ankle was taped. She missed the rest of the game at the Coors Events Center but came back in the fourth to play on essentially one leg. Her team needed her to help try to defeat the defending national champions.

It didn't take long before a teammate fell on the ankle. Sutherland went to the bench again and had to bury her face in a towel because the pain was so intense. Yet she put on a brace and taped it up again to get back in the game. Her team was putting up a hard fight against Washington and she wanted to at least try, even with the heavily bandaged ankle.

And the pain from that didn't even seem to be affecting her after the match. Her team had just ended its season with a 30-15, 22-30, 30-26, 30-24

loss, and the pain from that was canceling out the pain from her ankle.

"I've been playing through stuff all year," the junior said. "This is the last game. You can't hold anything back."

Colorado (17-12) held out as long as it could against the Huskies (27-4), but the champs' talent and the Buffs' injuries were too much to overcome. Besides a lopsided loss in the first game, the Buffs were never outclassed by Washington. They were even tied 18-18 in the fourth game before a 6-1 Huskies run put the Sweet 16 out of reach.

"I think that we left it all on the court tonight. I knew we wanted it, and that's why it is so bittersweet right now," senior setter Ashley Nu'u said. "I think we thought it was in our grasp, and it was. I think we battled tonight, but unfortunately it didn't go our way. It wasn't a lack of heart."

CU coach Pi'i Aiu admitted his team may have come out mesmerized by the Huskies' reputation. They are the sixth-seeded team in the tournament and the third-ranked team in the coaches' poll. They rarely had to work for points in the first game and Colorado looked ragged while hitting negative-.048.

The Buffs then put together a completely different game in the second game, which they won. They were crisp and rebounded to hit .344. They went into the break with confidence and a feeling they could truly play with the national champions.

"We jumped on (the CU players) a little bit and they responded and then it was just kids playing volleyball," Aiu said. "That is what you want to get to every match — where you aren't playing anybody's reputation. You are just playing volleyball with six other kids."

It no doubt helped that the Buffs beat top-ranked Nebraska this season in five games. Even after losing Sutherland, and the third game, the Buffs didn't collapse. Alex Buth stepped up for the Buffs and finished with 12 kills, matching Sutherland for the team-high. Mallori Gibson also had 11 kills and Austin Zimmerman had one solo block and nine block assists. Nu'u came off the bench for Sutherland and gave Colorado a lift for the second straight night.

It was performances like that helped Aiu feel like his team was never out of the match. They hung with the national champions and thought they may do even better if they had another chance.

"Most of the games we were right there with them, and I think that comes down to poise and confidence, and tonight they may have had just a little bit more than we had," the coach said. "I'm not taking anything away from our kids, either. I'd like to line them up again and take another shot at them and see what happens."