Sometimes sports statistics don't tell the whole story.
Thursday night the BYU women's volleyball team made its first-ever NCAA Final Four appearance. The Cougars had 20 more kills, 26 more digs, a considerably higher hitting percentage and - get this - even scored more points on the night than semifinal foe Penn State.But the Nittany Lions won the match, three games to one, 15-13, 6-15, 16-14, 15-12. Seventh-ranked Penn State (31-4) will play Long Beach State Saturday evening for the national championship, while the No. 4 Cougars (29-3) will be home, probably scrambling to finish their Christmas shopping like everyone else.
BYU had better statistics in nearly every category. What the stats don't show is that when the three close games were on the line, the Nittany Lions remained composed while the Cougs appeared to panic.
"We did not play the game tonight that we did last week against UCLA," said BYU coach Elaine Michaelis, referring to her team's improbable three-game win over the top-ranked Bruins in the West Regional title match last week. "We were too tense, too tight, too caught up with being in the Final Four."
Meanwhile, the Lions, clearly the favorites of the record-breaking crowd of 10,270 fans, kept their cool during crunch time.
"We may be as loose a team as there ever will be at the Final Four," said Penn State coach Russ Rose.
To the Cougars' credit, they did keep their composure at the end of the first game after Penn State took a 14-11 lead. BYU seniors Michelle Fellows and Tumua Matu'u postponed the loss several times each, as the Nittany Lions needed seven game-point attempts before winning 15-13.
The Cougars won the second game going away, 15-6, and appeared headed to victory in the third game. BYU led 14-11 and served twice for the game, but Penn State reeled off five consecutive points for a 16-14 win.
"We got real tentative (at the end of the third game)," Michaelis said. "We were probably afraid to lose."
The final game was close throughout, but with the score tied 12-12 the Lions ran off three straight points. The match-winner was on an ace serve by crowd favorite Jenny Myszewski, who is from nearby Wauwatosa, Wis.
The crowd at the University of Wisconsin's Fieldhouse was the largest ever to watch an NCAA volleyball Final Four match and it was solidly behind fellow Big 10 Conference school Penn State.
Fellows finished with a match-high 25 kills along with 19 digs, six assisted blocks and a .358 hitting percentage. Matu'u had 23 kills and 17 digs, while junior setter Charlene Johnson had 75 assists. As a team BYU had a .229 hitting percentage to Penn State's .197.
"I'm happy we were able to come this far, to be able to go farther than any BYU team ever has," Fellows said. "It was a hard way to go out, but it's way better than losing to UCLA, like we have all the time in the past."
TOURNAMENT NOTES - The match will be rebroadcast on ESPN Dec. 29 at 10:30 p.m. MST . . . Fellows and Johnson were among 12 players named first-team All-America by the American Volleyball Coaches Association . . . Thursday's loss was the final match for four Cougar seniors: Matu'u, Fellows, Carol Rawson and Shauna Scott . . . Second-ranked Long Beach State dominated No. 14 Florida in the other semifinal, winning 15-10, 15-6, 15-3 . . . The championship match will be shown taped-delayed nationally on CBS at 3 p.m. MST on New Year's Day, going head-to-head with the Rose Bowl.