In a non-conference volleyball match that lacked most of the style but none of the intrigue of last week's Western Athletic Conference Tournament, sixth-ranked Hawai'i was less bad than Cal Poly (San Luis Obispo) in a 25-23, 23-25, 25-20, 19-25, 15-13 victory at Stan Sheriff Center last night.

Rainbow Wahine senior Nickie Thomas had a career-high 11 blocks before a crowd of 3,572. She and Amber Kaufman contributed 18 kills from the middle while freshman Kanani Danielson was the only outside hitter to hit over .120 for Hawai'i (27-3), finishing with 16 kills.

The Mustangs (16-12), who finished third in the Big West, were led by two-time conference Player of the Year Kylie Atherstone with 15 kills — 11 in the first two sets — and five aces.

It was the third straight match the teams went the distance. The Rainbows erased an 11-8 deficit behind Thomas in the final set, which was tied at 11, 12 and 13, before Danielson put down the final two kills after nearly 2 1/2 hours.

"We didn't have any emotion tonight, real low energy," UH coach Dave Shoji said. "We just hung in there. The setting was a little off but we just hung on. I don't know how we won, but we won.

"Parts of our game were going, but never all at the same time," he added. "We were just all over the place against a good team. We stole it basically. We had no business winning it. We had no emotion."

Stephanie Brandt set most of the match, but regular starter Dani Mafua was in for parts of the final two sets.

Hawai'i was chasing from the time it hit straight into the Cal Poly block, twice, in the first three serves. The Mustangs pushed their advantage to 19-15 before momentum swung.

Danielson buried two of her four kills and Cal Poly hit out. It went ahead 20-18, then self-destructed, losing the next three points on a foot fault, violation and hitting error as the 'Bows pulled ahead 21-20.

It was tied three more times before Jamie Houston's kill gave UH set point. That went down when Brandt stuck out her fist to dig a ball heading toward the endline and sent the ball back to the net, where Thomas dinked it down for her fourth kill.

"It's hard when things just aren't clicking with you to really drive out emotion," said Thomas. "You don't really want to get upset or over-excited. You just want to stay calm and play your game, but other times you really can't. You do need that passion to go and get it. We were having a hard time trying to find that nice balance between the two. We were either really excited or just down."

The second set saw the Mustangs again opening fast, Hawai'i catching them at 10 and 13, then crumbling under the assault of Atherstone's serving. She served three straight aces — cranking one down the middle, one down the opposite sideline and another down the line — to give Cal Poly a 17-13 advantage.

The Rainbow Wahine rallied again, despite Houston's inability to find the court. They caught the Mustangs at 22 and went ahead on a Cal Poly violation. After a timeout the Mustangs — hitting for a negative percentage — tied it and Houston, the WAC Player of the Year, blasted two balls far out to end it.

At the break, the third-team All-Americans had very different lines: Atherstone was practically beating the 'Bows alone, with 11 of her team's 24 kills, a .409 attack percentage and four aces; Houston was a lowly 7-for-25 with eight of her team's 14 errors (negative .040).

The 'Bows' passing disintegrated again in the third set. Reserve Gaby Rivera aced them three straight times to pull her team ahead 10-5. Then the Mustangs returned the favor.

Hawai'i scored the next four points with the help of three errors. Still struggling, the Rainbows fell back into a 16-11 hole, then outscored Cal Poly 14-4 the rest of the way. Aneli Cubi-Otineru did most of the damage, serving six straight with Houston coming out of her funk and Thomas touching everything at the net.

The 'Bows won it on Houston's 13th kill. She was 6-for-10 in the set while Atherstone was shut out in 11 swings, with four errors.

When Cal Poly scored the first four points of the fourth set, Hawai'i was chasing again. It fell behind as much as 17-12, closed to 21-19, then went down to a dink and three Atherstone serves, with Houston hitting out once and getting blocked on set point. The Rainbows hit negative .029 for the set.

Hawai'i closes its home season tomorrow night against Cal Poly. The match, originally scheduled to begin at 8 p.m., will now start at 7 p.m. Senior Night will honor Jessica Keefe, Houston, Thomas and Tara Hittle after the match.

The Rainbows' place in the NCAA Tournament field will be announced Sunday night, with the first round scheduled next weekend at 16 home sites.