The second-seeded Rainbow Wahine slugged their way into next week's final four with a 32-34, 33-31, 30-24, 30-25 win over seventh-seeded Georgia Tech. The Rambling Wreck (34-4) had not lost to a ranked team all year until last night and it was easy to see why. Hawai'i and its exhausted crowd of 8,848 at Stan Sheriff Center never made Tech flinch.

It made for 2 1/2 hours of remarkable volleyball. The Rainbow Wahine refused to leave home with a loss and the Rambling Wreck i the first Atlantic Coast Conference team to reach the Elite Eight — put its warp-speed offense into overdrive. With ACC player of the year Kele Eveland setting all-region hitters Alexandra Preiss (22 kills) and Lynnette Moster (25), Tech made the 'Bows look bad often.

What they could not do, was knock them out. All-Americans Willoughby (36 kills) and Lily Kahumoku (25) made sure of that.

Hawai'i (36-1) will match 35-match winning streaks with Florida (35-1) in Thursday's NCAA Championship semifinal in Dallas. Both teams have lost only to defending national champions Southern California, which plays Minnesota in the other semifinal.

It is the Rainbow Wahine's third final-four appearance in four years. It comes only after a gritty performance over an extremely gritty opponent. Ultimately Hawai'i had too much defense — libero Melissa Villaroman collected 25 digs — and depth for the Rambling Wreck, which only remembers seeing too much Willoughby and Kahumoku.

"We tried to hang in there with her, block her a couple times," Preiss said of Willoughby. "We sure didn't manage to do that."

"She's a woman among girls," Eveland added. She's awesome. Oh my God."

Their coach, Bond Shymansky, felt Kahumoku ultimately made the difference.

"There's only so much you can do against Kim," he said, "but a better key is what Lily did. If we had stopped her it might have been a bit different, but she did a real good job or working around our block."

Georgia Tech erased it, then served far out to give the 'Bows another serve at it. Willoughby's jump serve went into the net for 30-all. Lauren Sauer's sixth kill gave the Rambling Wreck their first game point. It missed that serve, got another shot at the game and missed that serve for 32-all.

Hawai'i would get no more freebies. Preiss buried her 10th kill without an error then dropped in with Eveland to stuff Kahumoku to end it. Tech, led by Preiss at .714, hit .338 in the game with its only four hitting errors coming on UH blocks. Those were the exceptions. For most of the game, the Rainbows waved at empty air against Tech's quick offense.

Hawai'i took a lead into the 20s in the second game as well, and somehow finished the Yellow Jackets off this time.

After 10 ties, Kanoe Kamana'o served three straight to put UH ahead, 23-20. Tech pulled back ahead 25-24 with 4-0 run.

The game was tied again at 26, 27 and 28. The Rambling Wreck got to 29 first and served for a 2-0 lead three times. Willoughby buried every one, knocking her 16th kill of the night down with her left hand to tie it at 31.

Then the All-American walked slowly to the service line, took a break and launched her jump serve. Tech passed it over the net and Kahumoku sent the ball back for 32-31. Willoughby hammered her serve again, and the Jackets couldn't handle it, passing the ball into Kahumoku's right arm.

She buried game point for her 12th kill and the Rainbow Wahine survived despite staring at disaster and being out-hit by 30 points (.294 to .264). They kept Preiss to six kills in the game while Willoughby went for 10 and Kahumoku seven. The rest of the Rainbows were held to four kills.

They came on in Game 3 to give Tech something else to think about while Willoughby (8) and Kahumoku (6) kept bombing. While it couldn't stop Moster, who constantly hit over the 5-foot-8 Kamana'o. Hawai'i held Preiss to only three kills in the night's most one-sided game. Lauren Sauer, who finished with 15 kills, was shut out.

Both teams hit near .400 for most of the final game, which was tied 11 times, the last at 21. With Kamana'o again serving, Hawai'i surged ahead 23-21. The Rambling Wreck never caught up again.

"I really felt the emoton from the crowd did a good job picking Hawai'i up," Shymansky said. "I think they felt our emotion early, we certainly had nothing to lose and we played like it."

QUICK SETS: UH senior Lily Kahumoku is the winningest player in the history of Hawai'i volleyball. Kahumoku came in as a freshman in 1999 and red-shirted her junior season (2001). The Rainbow Wahine are 129-7 in the three-plus seasons she has played, which is third-best in NCAA history.

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8043.

The University of Hawai'i women's volleyball team slugged its way into next week's final four with a 32-34, 33-31, 30-24, 30-25 win over seventh-seeded Georgia Tech in an NCAA Regional final.

The Rambling Wreck (34-4) had not lost to a ranked team all year until tonight and it was easy to see why. Hawai'i and its ultimately exhausted crowd of 8,848 at Stan Sheriff Center never made Tech flinch.

The Rainbow Wahine simply refused to leave home with a loss and the Rambling Wreck — the first ACC team to reach the Elite Eight — put its warp-speed offense into overdrive. With ACC player Kele Eveland setting all-region hitters Alexandra Preiss (22 kills) and Lynnette Moster (25), Tech made the 'Bows look bad often.

What they could not do, was knock them out. All-Americans Kim Willoughby (36 kills) and Lily Kahumoku (25) made sure of that.

Hawai'i (36-1) plays Florida (35-1) in Thursday's NCAA Championship semifinal in Dallas. Both teams have lost only to defending national champions Southern California, which plays Minnesota in the other semifinal.