The Cardinal (31-4) take a six-match winning streak against the Rainbow Wahine (34-1) into tomorrow's NCAA Championship semifinal at the New Orleans Sports Arena. Hawai'i's last win against Stanford came Nov. 27, 1991.

Stanford's only 'Bow blemish in that time doesn't even show. The teams played an exhibition in April. More than 5,000 at Stan Sheriff Center saw Hawai'i hammer the defending national champions.

Seven months later, the Cardinal came back and swept the unbeaten, top-ranked Rainbows before a soldout crowd.

Nothing had changed.

If Hawai'i wants to win its first NCAA title in 15 years, something has to change tomorrow.

The most obvious place to start for the Rainbow Wahine is with Ogonna Nnamani, a second-team All-American last year as a freshman and the designated hitter for Stanford last month.

Nnamani did a slow fade in the spring, hitting but .094 over the final half of Hawai'i's four-game victory. She lit it up last month, going for 19 kills and hitting a spectacular .630.

"She was a lot better than we anticipated," UH coach Dave Shoji said. "She pretty much dominated the match which I didn't think she could do."

Nnamani elevated so far over the 'Bow block that she was hitting balls down in front of the defenders — a talent Nebraska could not duplicate in last week's regional, when UH had 91 digs in its four-game victory at Lincoln. Nnamani came into last month's match hitting less than .300. Ever since, she's been in the zone, hitting .438 at last week's regional.

If she goes over the Hawai'i block again tomorrow, look for the Rainbows to pull a back-row defender up. It is something Shoji hates because it limits the range of his defenders dramatically. But all he knows now is that Hawai'i can't let Nnamani go off again.

"She didn't make any mistakes last time and she's playing really well lately," Shoji says. "She's not making a lot of errors. Her freshman year she'd give you a couple easy points. She's not doing that anymore. She's matured as a player."

That makes her a perfect complement for 2001 NCAA Player of the Year Logan Tom, the Olympian ending her collegiate career. She and Nnamani make up Stanford's version of the West Coast offense. In Hawai'i, it is called "Lily" and "Kim."

"Stanford may be more balanced and Hawai'i relies too much on its left sides," Fresno State coach Lindy Vivas says. "But those might be the two best hitters in the country ... or maybe that's Logan and Ogonna. If that's a wash, then it will come down to what the others do as a team."

That, by the numbers, would put Stanford's nationally ranked block against Hawai'i's formidable defense, which has been gobbling digs at a 20-plus per game pace in the postseason.

"Our defense will carry us like it did against Nebraska and Washington," Shoji says. "That's what I hope separates us."

His players are more optimistic.