The second-seeded Rainbow Wahine (35-1) extended their winning streak to 34 with a 30-21, 30-22, 33-31 victory over the 15th-seeded Fighting Illini, who only put up a fight in the final game in front of 8,435 at Stan Sheriff Center.

Hawai'i All-American Kim Willoughby went 11 for 13 in the first game and finished with 28 kills — twice as many as any other player. The 'Bows again played without starting middle blocker Maja Gustin, who sprained her ankle last week. Karin Lundqvist had seven kills, two blocks and hit .545 in her place.

The Rainbows play seventh-seeded Georgia Tech (34-3) for the regional championship tonight at 7. Tech became the first ACC team to reach the Elite Eight by wearing out 10th-seeded Cal (25-7), 30-25, 20-30, 30-24, 30-23. The Rambling Wreck's balanced attack and 16 blocks silenced every Golden Bear but third-team All-American Mia Jerkov, who went for 32 kills but needed 75 swings to do it.

Cal was one of six teams in the tournament from the Pac-10. The Big Ten sent seven, including Illinois (26-7), which was beaten in every possible way for two games last night. UH coach Dave Shoji called his team's early performance "flawless."

"In Games 1 and 2 we were pretty darn good," said Shoji, who said that often during last week's sub-regional. "We followed our game plan to perfection, touching a lot of balls, playing great defense, running our transition. We did everything we needed to do."

That changed in Game 3, when the Rainbow Wahine lost focus as they closed in, and Illinois finally played its way out of the funk that had set in early. The Illini took their only leads of the night, at 6-5 and, after making up a four-point deficit, 25-23.

Hawai'i caught a second wind, with Lily Kahumoku and Lauren Duggins scoring six of the next seven points to give UH match point at 29-26. Illinois fought it off three times to tie it, while Willoughby did not get set and Shoji rolled his eyes in anguish on the bench.

He called time, and a play, and "might have" asked setter Kanoe Kamana'o to find Willoughby. Illinois helped by missing the serve to give UH a fourth match point, but Willoughby got stuffed. Illinois missed another serve, but Jessica Belter lined her team-high 13th kill and the crowd sat down a fifth time.

Finally, Willoughby crushed a kill for 32-31, then launched a serve the Illini barely returned. Hawai'i set Kahumoku, and she ended it with her 14th kill. She and Willoughby each had double-doubles and hit .419 and .420, respectively.

"Their outside hitting is wonderful," Illinois coach Don Hardin said. "But it just takes great ball control and defense to stay in those rallies like that, and they stayed in a lot.

"We've played teams that have components of what they've got. We have a good outside hitter or two on every team in the conference, but the performance they put out on the floor today is the best we've played this season, no question about it."

There was no such suspense in the first two games. Hawai'i came out as hot as it had last week and led 12-4 before the Illini could get a grip on the decibel level being leveled at them.

Illinois didn't help its cause when it started 5-foot-8 setter Erin Virtue in the front row against Willoughby, who buried 10 of her first 11 swings. "We took a risk ...," Hardin admitted. "It didn't work out too well."

The Illini never got closer than four as the Rainbow defense denied everything — Illinois hit .082 in Game 1 — and Willoughby was all but untouchable.

A 5-0 surge with Kamana'o serving put UH in control of Game 2 at 20-12. There was nothing Illinois could do to catch up, particularly with 6-foot-5 all-region middle Lisa Argabright in the midst of hitting zero on the night (4 kills, 4 errors).

"She hits two feet in front of the setter all the time," Shoji said, "so it was pretty simple to get people in front of her. Then we did a nice job blocking and digging."

Even a short Hawai'i lapse closed the gap to 26-21. The 'Bows called their first timeout of the night and finished off the game in five serves.

"The environment and the crowd took maybe a couple of our players out of the match early," Hardin said. "They regained their composure later, but much too late."

In the opener, Cal fell into a 16-9 hole against Georgia Tech before Jerkov — fifth in the country at six kills a game — put a ball down. Cal rallied with five aces in Game 2, but once the Rambling Wreck re-discovered their passing, they rolled on, with four players getting double-digit kills.

Tech setter Kele Eveland, the ACC Player of the Year, finished with her first career triple-double (11 kills, 52 assists, 12 digs), and the first for the program in more than seven years. Alexandra Preiss collected 16 kills and nine blocks.

"Georgia Tech presents a lot of problems for us," Shoji said. "They run the fastest attack I've seen in college volleyball. ... They just shredded Cal's block tonight and we're going to have to do a better job getting in front of them.

"I was very impressed with their play. They don't look like a great volleyball team, but they certainly perform like one."

QUICK SETS: Less than 1,500 tickets remain for tonight's match. The box office opens at 5 p.m., but tickets are available 24 hours at etickethawaii.com, and the RainbowTique at Ward Centre will have tickets beginning at 10 a.m. ... Oceanic Cable will show the Eastern Regional final, between third-seeded Florida and 11th-seeded Penn State, today at 1 p.m. ... Washington, seeded 12th, upset fifth-seeded Stanford in four games last night at Long Beach, Calif. In the other semifinal, 13th-seeded Washington took out fourth-seeded Pepperdine in five games. ... Top-seeded USC will play eighth-seeded UCLA for the right to advance out of Nebraska's regional. The Bruins beat the ninth-seeded 'Huskers in four games. ... Georgia Tech setter Kele Eveland moved into sixth on the NCAA's career assist list last night. She needs 14 to move into fifth.