The growing pains keep getting ever more painful for the Colorado women’s volleyball team.

The Buffaloes returned home on Wednesday, but the team’s struggles continued as No. 23 Utah topped CU in four sets, posting a 25-21, 23-25, 25-17, 25-17 win in a Big 12 Conference battle at the CU Events Center.

The defeat was the sixth in a row for the Buffs, the program’s longest losing streak since a seven-game slide during the delayed 2020 season played in early 2021.

Colorado (10-14, 3-9 Big 12) remained winless this season in seven contests against ranked foes and also dropped to 1-12 against ranked opponents since the start of the 2023 season. The Utes (18-5, 8-4 Big 12) had lost in each of their previous four visits to the Events Center.

“I think we’re in the right place. I think we’re still feeling like we’re doing the right things, and it’s going to pay off for us eventually,” CU head coach Jesse Mahoney said. “We’ve had a tough run. Four or five top-20 teams in the last five or six matches. We’ve been on the road quite a bit. It’ll be nice to have some homestands on the back end of the conference (schedule).”

The result followed a season-long pattern for the Buffs, who went point-for-point with the Utes for much of the night and even dominated during short stretches of play. Ultimately, the Buffs were done in by their ongoing inconsistencies and struggles on the attack.

The Buffs led 16-10 in the opening set only to watch the Utes outscore the hosts 15-5 the rest of the way, taking advantage of a lowly .036 hitting percentage posted by the Buffs in the opening frame.

CU made the plays late to pull even in the second set, breaking a 22-22 tie by scoring thee of the final four points, but Utah was in control the rest of the way. The Utes jumped to a 9-2 lead in the third set and cruised to a 2-1 set lead, and Utah took advantage of CU miscues to take a quick 10-1 lead in the fourth set. The Utes collected five of those 10 points off CU attack errors.

The Buffs never led during the final two sets. CU has been at or near the bottom of the Big 12 in several key offensive categories throughout the season and that continued against the Utes, with the Buffs finishing with 29 attack errors with a hitting percentage of .059. Sophomore Cayla Payne was a bright spot for CU, posting her first career double-double with 10 kills and a career-high 10 blocks.

Colorado will have an opportunity to break its losing streak on Saturday against Cincinnati (noon, ESPN+). Like the Buffs, the Bearcats own just three conference wins going into their Thursday home date against West Virginia.

“We have to find a way to point-score a little bit better than we are,” Mahoney said. “Especially when we’re passing well. Which I felt like we passed well enough to do that tonight. Utah’s big and physical, and they definitely put up a big block against us. But we fought hard. We’ve got another home match on Saturday that we have to prepare for.”