The Baker volleyball team had its first five-set match in the last 14 outings for its annual “Pink Out” game, but the Wildcats fell to Culver-Stockton College 25-21, 21-25, 10-25, 25-20, 18-16.

While it was only Baker’s fifth five-set match of the season, assistant coach Matt Windle didn’t think the duration of the match had a toll on BU.

“I don’t think that really affects us,” Windle said. “We go pretty hard in practice, so I don’t think our conditioning is an issue. Maybe our mental capacity might be strained a little bit at times and it just seems that we just forget to play in certain moments. We’ll figure out a way to work on that in practice.”

The loss dropped Baker’s record to 16-13 overall and 5-3 in the Heart of America Athletic Conference.

After BU took a 14-11 lead in the first set, C-SC closed it out on a 14-7 run to win 25-21 and jump out to a 1-0 advantage.

Baker bounced back to take win the second set by the same score as the first, winning five out of the last six points to tie the match at 1-1.

BU kept the momentum from the end of the second set to run away with the third 25-10, but C-SC regained control in the fourth set.

C-SC took the lead after the first five points of the fourth set and never looked back on its way to a 25-20 win and to tie the match at 2-2.

The teams battled back and forth in the fifth set before Culver-Stockton got out to a 12-8 lead. BU responded with a 4-0 run to tie the set at 12-12 and eventually took its first lead of the set at 14-13. Baker had three match points, but Culver-Stockton edged out BU 18-16 to win the set and game.

Senior Savannah Smith led the way for BU in kills with 17, while junior Renata Dill had a team-high 28 digs. Senior Jana Boss also had 37 of Baker’s 48 assists.

Baker will end its regular season with a non-conference match against Waldorf College at noon Saturday in Collins Center, followed by Senior Night versus Benedictine College at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

“We’ve got to find a way to compete,” Windle said. “Too often this year, we hang around with teams and then let them get on late runs and we have a hard time finishing out games.”

With one conference match remaining, BU sits at fourth place in the HAAC. Baker would clinch a home game in the first round of the HAAC postseason tournament with a win Tuesday against Benedictine.