I knew it was going to be an interesting day when I woke up and the first things I saw when I opened the hotel door were cows.

That's right, cows.

I woke up in Knoxville, Tenn., Saturday morning, with anticipation of seeing the Penn State women's basketball team possibly upset No. 1-seeded Tennessee to advance to the Elite 8.

I would soon learn that I had another thing coming.

The game began as expected, with the Lady Volunteers flying to the tune of a 7-0 start, much to the delight of the sea of orange which filled the Thompson-Boling Arena.

The crowd was as loud as one could have thought, and they were determined to carry their Vols to victory.

They were doing a great job, as the Lady Lions seemed lost and shocked early on, and the Vols were determined to take full advantage.

Fast forward to halftime and the Lions were down 14, but something dawned on me; the score should have been much closer, and the Lions quite possibly could have been winning.

Think of it this way: One of the better players in the country, Kelly Mazzante did not score her first basket until the Lions' last possession of the half.

Foul trouble plagued the Lions as well. Hazel Joseph, Tanisha Wright and Jess Brungo were forced to sit on the pine for much longer than Penn State women's basketball coach Rene Portland would have liked.

Despite playing shorthanded and practically giving the Vols every rebound imaginable, the Lions were down by just nine late.

If Ashli Schwab converts lay-ups on consecutive trips, it's a five-point game.

Instead, she missed both and the Vols capitalized with a 10-3 run over the last 3:45 to take the 14-point halftime lead.

The Vols were in such control that one male cheerleader said, "it's nap time" as he walked off the floor to do whatever cheerleaders do at halftime.

It was at this point I began to realize my weekend in Tennessee, on the Collegian's dime, might be coming to an end.

In the back of my mind, I thought if the Lions could only bulk up their rebounding a little and Mazzante could find her shots in the second half, the Lions could pull the upset, and I would get to miss class on Monday to cover an Elite 8 game.

It didn't exactly work out that way, as the start of the second half was even more painful for the Lion faithful to watch.

The first Volunteer possession resulted in six chances on the offensive end, as they were grabbing every missed shot, and when that didn't happen the ball would go out of bounds off of Penn State.

Game over right?

Somehow the Lions dug deep and answered every Tennessee possession with a score of their own, refusing to go away.

The deficit dwindled to 10 six minutes in, and if only the Lions hadn't missed four wide-open lay-ups to this point, this was a great game set to come down to the wire.

From there, the deficit began to grow to 12, then 15, then 19 and the hopes of an upset were slowly evaporating.

All I could do was think about the easy misses and the 30 extra rebounds the Vols grabbed, and that tells the story.

Toward the end, the Vols took complete advantage of a heartbroken Lions' team and slowly increased their lead until it reached 30.

There's no question it could have been, and should have been much closer.

The Lions just faltered when they had their chances, and they did have plenty of them.

All along I knew it was going to be an interesting day.