The Washington University volleyball team’s season-high 12-game winning streak came to a screeching halt in the University Athletic Association Championships, and in a span of 20 hours of lackluster play, the Bears went from prospective conference champions to a team on a losing streak as it prepares for the national tournament.

For only the second time ever, and the first since 1988, Wash. U. failed to reach the final round of the UAA Championships. The disappointment continued from there—an upset loss to Carnegie Mellon University in the third-place match gave the No. 8 Bears a fourth-place finish, their worst ever.

The third-place bout against Carnegie Mellon was perhaps Wash. U.’s most disappointing loss of the season so far. After failing to capitalize on a match-point opportunity in the fourth set, the Bears fell behind early in the decisive fifth and suffered their first loss to an unranked opponent since 2010. Prior to this match, the Red and Green had been 46-1 all-time against the Tartans.

“I think more than anything, it shows the level of our conference,” interim head coach Luke Young said. “We didn’t play our best volleyball by any stretch…but there’s nothing we need to go into emergency mode about. We just need to continue to focus on the urgency of adapting to the match as it goes on and being able to make adjustments.”

The tournament’s second seed, Wash. U. started the weekend by defeating Brandeis University in four sets in the quarterfinals, but that match portended things to come: Brandeis hadn’t won a set against the Bears since 2007, and the Red and Green had swept the Judges with ease earlier this season. Though Wash. U. still gained the victory, its level of play didn’t improve over the next two matches as its opponents did.

Against No. 6 Emory University in the semifinal, the Bears saved two points in the first set before handing the Eagles the 1-0 lead with a service error, and after leading the second set from the start, Wash. U. squandered its advantage—at one time as high as six points—by allowing Emory to run off five straight points to gain control. The third set was all Emory; the Eagles hit .429 and, after jumping to a 12-3 lead, didn’t allow the Bears within seven points for the duration of the set.

“Having the second set in hand with the nice lead and then giving that up, and then letting Emory come out and come at us getting a nice lead early in that third set…at that point, we had already given them a big cushion,” Young said.

The loss to Emory marked the seventh straight year that the two rivals split their regular-season matches; in each year, one team won in the UAA Round Robin with the other triumphing in the conference tournament.

While the team’s hitters were unable to develop a consistent attack this weekend—the lowlight came with the team’s .038 hitting percentage across the last two sets against Carnegie Mellon—the defense played well under the leadership of freshman libero Kalehua Katagiri.

“She had a tremendous match to start the weekend with 39 digs against Brandeis, and then she played really well against Emory,” Young praised. “That’s something I’ve been encouraged by—to see the way she’s grown over the season, starting off kind of quiet like a freshman might, in that type of role. She’s really taken charge and made other teams have to think about where they want to put the ball so they can stay away from her at times.”

But the Bears’ offensive struggles were the story of the weekend as they coincided with the decreased effectiveness of their middle hitters, whose attacks had fueled the team’s recent win streak. The middles managed only a .119 hitting percentage this weekend due to the combination of predictable setting patterns and formidable opposing blockers.

“We probably could’ve switched up our middle attack and used different sets in transition,” Young admitted. “We were kind of running it straight at their middles a lot and not making them work too hard to close their block.”

While the Bears’ No. 2 ranking in the Central Region is tenuous, they are still heavy favorites to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. The team’s losses this weekend likely cost it a chance at hosting the first weekend of tournament play, meaning the Red and Green will have to win three matches away from the Field House to advance to their first quarterfinal appearance in three years.