In a five-set college volleyball match, statistics can pretty much define a win or a loss.

No. 8 Arizona State and No. 19 BYU battled long into the night in front of 4,295 fans at the Smith Fieldhouse, and the Sun Devils finally came away with a 3-2 (25-22, 19-25, 17-25, 25-23, 15-13) victory on Thursday.

If you’re wondering about what statistic proved to be the difference, look no further than hitting errors: BYU committed 27, Arizona State 18. That’s nine extra points awarded to the visitors.

In a match that came down to the final points, those numbers are huge.

“I think we just lost our focus in the fourth and fifth set,” BYU head coach Heather Olmstead said. “We had opportunities. I thought we had too many hitting errors and you just can’t give a good team like that free points. So we’ve got to clean up our hitting errors, be more assertive and keep our focus.”

Set 5 was tied at 9-9 but Arizona State scored three straight to take a 12-9 lead. The Cougars got within one twice and had two swings to tie the set at 14. But the Sun Devils turned back both of those attacks and Tatum Parrott smashed her hit off the BYU block for the winner.

Freshman Suli Davis led all hitters with 25 kills and Claire Little Chambers had 14, but the two BYU pin hitters combined for 20 of the Cougars 27 hitting errors. Setter Alex Bower had 51 assists, seven digs, two aces and five kills.

“You cannot be not bummed about that match,” Davis said. “We fought a good fight and we tried our best, but we just came up a little bit short. We knocked them out in the second and third sets, and then there were just those little errors. It all matters in the end.”

Arizona State’s dynamic pin hitters, Noemie Glover and Bailey Miller, had 19 and 16 kills, respectively, and were more efficient with only 10 hitting errors. The Sun Devils also totaled twice as many blocks as the Cougars with 16, led by Colby Neal with 10 block assists.

“I loved our effort in the second and third sets,” Olmstead said. “We had our chances in the fourth and fifth set but just lost our focus. They (the Cougars) competed and now they know they can play with that team. We just didn’t quite have enough to execute it.”

Arizona State (15-2 overall, 6-0 Big 12) scored five straight points late in Set 1 and took an early 1-0 lead in the match. BYU played brilliantly in the second and third sets, slowing down the Sun Devils offense and taking advantage of good defense and strong serving to take a 2-1 lead in the match.

Set 4 was tied 12 times, the last at 22-all. Brielle Kemavor provided a solo block for a 23-22 Cougar lead, but Arizona State scored the final three points of the set on kills from Glover and Miller and a net violation on BYU during an offensive attack to force the fifth set.

“I think we’re going to come out of this match with a chip on our shoulder,” Davis said. “That was a good team. We’re just the underdogs now, and we’ve been underdogs. All you can do is get better from this and learn from it.”

BYU (15-3, 3-3) has three straight Big 12 matches coming up on the road, starting with Saturday at Texas Tech in Lubbock.