LAS CRUCES, N.M. — It was a weird and absolutely unintentional way to go about it, but if 11th-ranked Hawai'i needed incentive going into today's Western Athletic Conference Tournament, Sunday's sweep by Utah State provided it.

The Rainbow Wahine have not even talked about their final WAC regular-season match, according to coach Dave Shoji. He has not encouraged a discussion.

They all know what went so terribly wrong.

"We all know what we need to do," Shoji said. "Talking about it at this point is not going to mean much."

Another win at this tournament, played at the home of the Whole Enchilada Fiesta and International Mariachi Conference, would silence everyone anyway.

The 'Bows have owned this event, winning it every year since 1998 (it was not played in 1999 and 2000). They are on a 21-match tournament win streak and have dropped just four games in that span.

The level of their game soared at this juncture last year. They sound confident they can kick it up several notches again, starting with today's first-round match at Pan American Center. Top-seeded Hawai'i (21-5) plays the winner of the morning play-in match between ninth-seeded Louisiana Tech (6-23) and eighth-seeded Boise State (5-22).

The Rainbow Wahine, who got into town just after noon yesterday, are calling Sunday a wake-up call for a competition-starved, now jet-lagged, squad. They couldn't help themselves, senior Caroline Blood said.

"We need to play like we're playing New Mexico State every time," Blood said. "We're actually rivals with them and we play them like we want to crush them. We actually play our game. That's why we're so much better in the postseason. It's hard to get up for teams sometimes.

"We know we're so much better than (what) we played against Utah State. It was tough to watch, but from here on out it's going to be different."

Shoji has no doubt, and did show some empathy for his team, calling the lack of incentive Sunday tough to deny. He is not worried about a sequel.

"We got complacent," he said. "We've had problems with that from time to time. It's been awhile, but back in the first month we had that problem.

"Emotionally, we just weren't at our best. There was no incentive to get fired up Sunday. That's not an excuse, but it is reality. There was not a whole lot riding on the match and our emotions were not where they need to be."

The result was radical enough — Hawai'i had never lost to a WAC opponent at home — that the Utah State team celebrated on the beach until 5 a.m. About that time, everyone else in the WAC was getting the news.

The WAC Tournament has taken on a whole new look.

"Teams we play have some kind of hope that we've got issues," Shoji admits. "We hope to dispel any of those feelings."

Blood calls Sunday's problems "real fixable" and actually found something good in the loss.

"We played a team with a system we're not used to, which is good because that's what it will be like all through the playoffs," she said. "We got to see it, got a little sneak preview of what it will be like and we know what we have to do to fix it."

Blood has personally taken care of one potential problem. When NMSU ended Hawai'i's NCAA-record 132-match conference winning streak here last year, a large bunch of hecklers found their way into the Rainbows' heads. Since then, Blood has started dating the "loudest heckler" — Frankie Duran, a junior from Las Cruces who pitches for the NMSU baseball team.

NOTES

Hawai'i and UCLA swapped spots in this week's Molten/Volleyball Magazine Top 20 Media Poll, with UH dropping to 11th. New Mexico State is 12th.

The Rainbow Wahine surpassed 100,000 in attendance last week and have drawn 110,175 this season. They have gone over 100,000, and led the nation in attendance, every year since moving into the Stan Sheriff Center full time in 1995. This year's average attendance of 6,481 is the lowest since that first year.

New Mexico State is 17th nationally in attendance, averaging 1,755. A crowd of 7,538 watched Hawai'i beat the Aggies here in September, which is nearly half NMSU's total attendance.

Hawai'i is third in the latest RichKern .com West Region rankings, behind the Mountain West's UNLV and Colorado State, a team UH beat the second night of the season. Overall, WAC teams are 5-2 against the Mountain West. The NCAA's regional rankings, which are not out, will decide where teams are sent for the NCAA Tournament. Pairings are announced next Sunday (Nov. 25).

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.