Before 1,210 at Moby Arena last night, the third-seeded Rainbow Wahine (30-0) gave Purdue (17-15) one opportunity to win in their second-round match. The Boilermakers missed - like every other UH opponent this season - and went down, 33-31, 30-27, 30-19.

Next stop on Hawai'i's mystical, magical tour is Green Bay, Wisc. - possibly the only place colder than this. The 'Bows play the winner of tonight's Wisconsin-Notre Dame match in a regional semifinal Friday at Resch Center.

It is the 21st time in the 24-year history of the NCAA Tournament that Hawai'i has reached the regionals. It has gone on to eight final fours, including three of the last four.

The most compelling part of all of this is that last year's final-four team had six senior starters. This was the rebuilding season, only somebody forgot to tell UH. Last night, it became the 16th Hawai'i team to win 30 matches, and by far the least likely.

Purdue coach Dave Shondell explained the Rainbows' best trait in one word:

"Tradition," he said. "The fact they think they're supposed to win. They think they're supposed to go to the final four. That goes a long way.

"We had a huge win last night, as emotional a win as anybody is going to have in this tournament. It's tough to bounce back. We didn't expect we were supposed to come out and win again - like Hawai'i did. Hawai'i plays Notre Dame or Wisconsin next week and even though those are very good teams I guarantee Hawai'i thinks it's supposed to win. That's what's most in their favor."

Shondell added that the 'Bows were young and not "tournament-tough." Earlier, he called them a "nice team, but if we played the kind of match we did last night we would have beaten them."

Pretty much every Hawai'i opponent has felt that way, but the 'Bows remain as unbeaten as they are unbelievable.

They have found a way to win every night, going 13 deep to do it. Last night, their outside hitters buried the Boilermakers and Teisa Fotu and Kelly Ong finished them off from the service line.

The teams traded leads early. Finally, Purdue started to pull away, with Daren Poe - one of two senior starters - serving a 5-0 run that put her team up, 21-15.

"I thought here we go again," UH coach Dave Shoji said. "We're not playing like we can; we didn't have a lot of enthusiasm. Purdue did the things to us we thought they might. But somehow we found something inside to make a little comeback. That might have been the key."

Hawai'i hung on behind freshman Tara Hittle and cut its deficit to 23-20 as Fotu went back to serve. She aced the first, induced a shank that Susie Boogaard destroyed on the second and, after a timeout, punched the ball so it danced on the tape and fell over to tie it.

Boogaard, who was 5-for-6 in the game, put the 'Bows ahead on the next serve. They would not trail again, nor would they be really be threatened the rest of the night. By the end they were playing near-perfect volleyball.

"Just one tough server going back and giving us that tough deep, float serve," Shondell said. "That really disrupted what we were doing. That's the thing about volleyball. You talk all the time about the hitters and blockers and great defensive plays, and all it takes is one player, regardless of how athletic they are, to go back and hit a tough serve."

The Boilermakers would tie the first game seven more times - there were 15 ties overall - and fend off three game points. But Boogaard ultimately was too much, getting her last kill to make it 32-31, then dropping in with Victoria Prince for the final point on UH's fifth stuff.

Boogaard was sublime in this subregional. She anchored the offense Thursday against Colorado, with 16 kills and a .387 hitting percentage. Last night, the Boilermakers blocked her once, in the final game. Beyond that, she blasted 13 kills off a big block and hit .375.

"I wasn't surprised at her," Shoji said. "I was surprised at her percentage. She has been hitting about 21 percent. She's a junior. She's trained very hard. She's waited a long time to make these kind of contributions. She's really stepped up and I couldn't be happier for her."

The Rainbows ran with the emotion they created, breaking to an 19-11 advantage in the second game. Purdue didn't know where to go as setter Kanoe Kamana'o isolated Hittle, Kari Gregory and Alicia Arnott to open up the offense.

When the Boilermakers began to rally, it was Boogaard again. After Purdue cut its deficit in half (19-15), Kamana'o went to Boogaard for Hawai'i's next three kills.

The Boilermakers could never get within three. They finally ran out of room to make their move and Arnott ended it with her seventh kill of the game.

At that point, Hawai'i had 43 digs - nearly as many as it had in its four-game victory a night earlier. It would finish with 67 as Fotu, in for injured libero Ashley Watanabe, was in on 15 digs, Kamana'o 14, Hittle 12 and Boogaard 10.

Many, many of them came during a spectacular finish. The final game was tied nine times, until Prince put Hawai'i ahead, 19-18. Ong, a walk-on only on this trip because the NCAA allows 13 on the travel roster instead of 12, came in to serve.

When she done, it was 29-18. The UH bench was in an uproar, Shoji was up, shaking his fist and smiling. The Rainbow Wahine were on their way to Green Bay.

"I just try to focus in, take a breath and just ... it seemed like three serves to me, not 10," Ong said. "I just took one serve at a time, tried to keep myself calm. It was amazing, very cool."

Purdue, one of seven Big Ten teams in the tournament, had seen enough. It ended with the Boilermakers serving out and the overwhelmingly pro-Hawai'i crowd screaming and scrambling down to greet their new friends on the floor.

"I really didn't want to think about Green Bay, but once it was apparent I just felt joy for the team, the program, the state," Shoji said. "I felt so good for them. There were a lot of upset people this week. I think a lot of eyes were on us around the country. It was a relief to advance."

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