By ROSEMARY LARSEN
Universe Sports Writer
BYU's women's volleyball team will continue its NCAA quest as the team travels to Penn State to take on 16th ranked Texas A&M Friday afternoon in the semifinals.
BYU leads the series with the Aggies 8-1. A&M's only win was a 3-2 victory in 1995 in a dual match in Provo. BYU defeated the Aggies 3-0 in the consolation match of the State Farm/NACWAA Classic to open the season.
'When we played at Stanford, we know Texas A&M played much better against Stanford than they did against us,' said Cougar Coach Elaine Michaelis. 'So we know they're a very good team.'
The Aggies are 26-7 and finished 15-5 in the Big 12. As a team, they are hitting .270 and holding opponents to .145, but the Cougars (28-5) are hitting .292 as a team and opponents are hitting .133, so the stats are close.
'They are a very poised, very mature team and they have two of the best outside hitters in the country,' Michaelis said.
Senior Kristi Smedsrud and junior Stacy Sykora are the outside hitters for Texas A&M. Smedsrud averages 3.99 kills, 2.83 digs and a .272 hitting percentage per game. Sykora has averages of 3.94 kills, 3.60 digs and a .262 hitting percentage.
'We aren't looking past them in any way,' Michaelis said. 'We have a lot of respect for the teams in the regional.'
'I don't think we could have hoped for anything more at this time,' Michaelis said. 'It's great to be going to the sweet 16.'
According to a BYU Sports Information press release, the 1997 NCAA women's volleyball tournament began with a 56 team draw. After a weekend of subregionals, 16 teams (Cougars included) remain at four regional sites. Eight teams were seeded nationally and all eight of those teams made it through subregional play into regionals.
This is BYU's 16th appearance in the NCAA tournament in 17 years of NCAA championship history. The Cougars are 18-15 in NCAA play and have advanced to the Regionals 11 times, the Regional finals five times and the NCAA Final Four (semifinals) once.
'We still have some work to do. We're working hard on the things we need to do this weekend,' Michaelis said.
Following the match between BYU and Texas A&M, Penn State will play Ohio State. If the Cougars win, they will play the winner of the later match in the Final on Saturday night.
BYU leads the series with Penn St. 3-2, but the top-ranked Nittany Lions have won the last two meetings. 'We played competitively in the last two games against Penn St. at Stanford after we learned what we could do against them,' Michaelis said.
The Cougars also lead the series against Ohio State 5-0. And BYU won the last meeting in 1991.