It’s been fifth-set madness for the No. 19 BYU women’s volleyball team the past couple of weeks.

The Cougars lost three straight five-setters to Georgia Tech, San Diego and Oregon and on Wednesday, fumbled away a 24-21 lead in the fourth set with Utah State.

Guess what? Another fifth set.

BYU couldn’t close the deal in the fourth set as the Aggies, which came into the match with a 2-6 record, came back with a late run to force a fifth set. The Cougars led just 13-11 in that one but a Kjersti Strong kill set up match point and Brielle Miller fired off an ace serve to finish a 3-2 (23-25, 25-23, 25-12, 27-25, 15-11) victory in front of 3,929 fans at the Smith Fieldhouse.

The win didn’t exactly heal all the wounds from the past two weeks, but it’s a good start.

“It’s about executing, and we just executed better in the fifth set,” BYU coach Heather Olmstead said. “We had some big-time plays when we needed them, good kills and good serves. Knowing we’d been there (in a five-set match) before, and learning from that, and knowing that we were going to do it now or we were going to feel the pain again. They just decided they wanted to make something of it tonight.”

A good serve is a powerful weapon at any level of volleyball. In Wednesday’s match, it was the story of the night.

The Aggies used strong service pressure to keep BYU off balance and the match close despite hitting a paltry .082. The Cougars, which struggled to pass for much of the night, used the serve to seize momentum in the third set. USU ended up with nine aces and BYU had seven.

“Our serving got better as the match went on and that really helped us put pressure on them,” Olmstead said. “Our passing got a little bit better as the match went on.”

The Cougars dominated at the net, with 19 team blocks led by Brielle Kemavor’s 10 block assists, along with seven block assists each by Strong and Blaykli Bobik. Claire Little led BYU with 17 kills, freshman Elli Mortensen added 13 and Strong finished with 10. setter Alex Bower had 43 assists, seven digs and five block assists in another strong performance from the freshman.

Adna Mehmedovic led Utah State (2-7) with 14 kills and Jagoda Bialek totaled three aces and 12 digs.

Set 1 was a defensive struggle with 14 ties and seven lead changes. BYU dominated at the net (six blocks) and Utah State stayed even with service pressure (five aces). The visitors gained an edge and reached set point at 24-22 on their fifth service ace, this one by Andrea Simonov. Kelsey Watson took her attack off the BYU block for the winner and Utah State took a 1-0 lead in the match.

BYU led by as many as three points in Set 2 but continued passing issues kept the Cougars from gaining any momentum on the offensive side. BYU surged to a 22-19 advantage when Kemavor and Bower teamed up for a block but the Aggies made a move and tied the set at 23 on another Mehmedovic kill. Little put down a big swing to move BYU to set point and Kemavor and Bobick provided the winner on a block to tie the match at 1-1.

Hannah Billeter led the charge in Set 3, putting USU on its heels with precision serving. The Cougars scored nine straight points with Billeter at the service line, including a pair of aces, to turn a 6-6 tie into a 15-6 lead. BYU cruised from there, getting to 24-12 and then winning on its fourth ace of the set, this one from Little. The Cougars held USU to -.056 hitting in the third set (four kills, five errors, 16 swings) to take a 2-1 lead in the match.

“I just think of serving my serve every time and trusting my skill,” Billeter said. “I was able to do it because I’ve been trained for that moment.”

BYU looked to be well on its way to a win in Set 4, taking a 15-9 lead on back-to-back USU hitting errors. The Cougars earned a match point at 24-21 but Utah State went on a four-point run to lead 25-24. On second set point, Mehmdedovic and Barlow teamed up for a block and the Aggies won 27-25, forcing a fifth set.

BYU (5-3) has two more in-state matches this week, traveling to Ogden to play Weber State on Friday and hosting Utah Valley in the Fieldhouse on Saturday. Both matches begin at 6 p.m. and can be streamed on ESPN+.