COEUR d'ALENE - For much of the match, it was hard to tell which team was nationally ranked, and which team came in with a losing record in conference play.

But a slow start in the fifth game by North Idaho College was too much to overcome, as the Cardinals fell 22-25, 25-21, 25-23, 15-25, 15-11 to Salt Lake Community College, ranked 10th in the NJCAA, on Thursday night in Scenic West Athletic Conference play at Christianson Gym.

"Momentum was huge," NIC coach Kelsey Stanley said. "And the fifth game, for some odd reason, we haven't been able to start off with that momentum. It seems like we can't get going, and it really hurts us. I told the girls you can't be behind too far with these good teams, because it's just that much harder to catch up."

Chalk it up as another learning experience for NIC (9-9, 3-5 SWAC), which, coming off a resounding 25-15 win in the fourth game, promptly fell behind Salt Lake (17-8, 5-3) 5-1 in the deciding game to 15. The Cardinals came no closer than three points the rest of the way.

"We're in a tough conference," said NIC setter Maddi Seidl, one of only four sophomores on the team. "And the most frustrating part about it is, we're right there; and we know we can do this."

Dzeni Hadezisehovic, NIC's 6-foot-4 sophomore right side hitter from Belgrade, Serbia, had a match-high 19 kills.

Freshman Brenna Meehan, from Post Falls High, added 13 kills, including at least five from the back row, and she also had 15 digs. Matilda Altin, a 5-11 freshman middle blocker from Vallentuna, Sweden, had 12 kills.

NIC was much more the aggressor early, totaling 19 kills to Salt Lake's seven in the first set, and overcoming five service errors.

The Bruins didn't have a terminator like Hadezisehovic, but kept swinging away, from the outside and the right side, and eventually found holes. Kallie Schmit, a 6-foot freshman outside hitter from Kalama, Wash., had 14 kills, and Brighton Taylor, a 6-1 freshman middle blocker from Bountiful, Utah, who normally doesn't start, got the start Thursday night and added 13 kills.

"It's us against us," said Salt Lake coach Sue Dulaney, moments before her and her assistant coach headed outside to jump into Lake Coeur d'Alene - a tradition for the coaches with Salt Lake wins at NIC. "That set four, we gave them the game; we just started to collapse, and we start making errors and dwelling on it, and making other errors. I think today was a good team effort on our part; something that we've needed."

She noted the Bruins have been switching back and forth from a 6-2 to a 5-1, and back to a 6-2 late in the match on Thursday night. Their libero is just getting back from an injury and their All-American, Carol Grasso didn't play much on Thursday night for a variety of reasons.

"We're just trying to piece things together," Dulaney said. "We lose our focus a little bit."

NIC trailed 22-17 in the third game before battling back, eventually tying it at 23 on an ace by Brittany Aldridge. But a net serve by the Cardinals, followed by a hitting error by NIC, gave the game to Salt Lake.

In the fourth game, Meehan served nine straight points as NIC opened up a 17-7 lead, the key points coming on a back row kill by Meehan, followed by an overfeed on serve-receive to Altin, who smashed it back down for the kill.

But Schmit, Taylor and Sequoia Lofton had three kills each in the final game for Salt Lake, and NIC had just two kills in the deciding game.

"We just have to play our game, and play aggressive," Stanley said. "We kinda stepped back that fifth game. We're going against these top-ranked teams in the nation to five, but experience, it seems like we're lacking that a little bit, and I think the fifth game comes down to experience."

"What kills us is, at least in the last game, we don't necessarily start strong," Seidl said. "We get ourselves in a hole and we're really good at coming back, but in those short games you can't do that to yourself."

Seidl finished with 52 assists and 11 digs for NIC. Libero Kennedy Chadwick had 22 digs, and Altin had six block assists.

Rachel Davis had 38 assists for Salt Lake, and libero Mariana Pilon had 12 digs.

NIC plays host to No. 7 Snow (17-5, 4-3) on Saturday. The Badgers lost 3-0 at No. 3 Southern Idaho (27-1, 8-0) on Thursday night, giving CSI at least a share of the conference title. CSI hosts Salt Lake on Saturday.