There are losses, and then there are losses you can live with. This one in San Diego, where volleyball left everything on the floor, is the second kind. It stings. It should sting. But that kind of effort, against that kind of opponent, does not embarrass the program. It reminds you what the program is.
This was not a clean game. It was not a smart game, probably. But it was a Coug game. You can see the same DNA in the football team's Four Cougs got touches in a loss the box score won't show and in the way Kirby Moore on the Aztec loss and what it means for the Cougs talked about process over result. Volleyball did not close it out. Neither did football against SDSU in that Cougs claw back but can't close it out in 26-20 loss to SDSU. There is a pattern forming, and it is not a pattern of losing. It is a pattern of playing until the whistle, until the buzzer, until the last point lands. That does not show up in a box score. It shows up in the locker room. It shows up in February, when a team that learned how to fight in October remembers how to finish in November.
Here is the take you can text a friend: this team is not afraid to lose ugly. That is rarer than you think. A lot of programs, when they get down by a set or a touchdown, start playing not to get embarrassed. They play safe. They play small. This volleyball team played big. They left it on the floor in San Diego, which is a cliché until you watch a team that actually does it. The question now is whether that energy translates into wins later. The football team could not make it translate against SDSU. The volleyball team could not make it translate against SDSU. That is the same opponent, same weekend, same result. The difference is that both teams showed they can get back up.
Watch the next two weeks. If this loss breaks the rotation or the rhythm, it was just a moral victory. If it sharpens the focus, if the setters start a little higher and the hitters start a little earlier, then San Diego was the price of admission for something better. The Cougs have proven they can claw back. The open question is whether they can close it out.