There are a couple of matches that really matter on the University of Hawai'i volleyball team's Western Athletic Conference schedule this season and one - maybe even the biggest - is tomorrow in Las Cruces, N.M.

History suggests that, for the most part, as long as the Rainbow Wahine show up and can stifle a yawn for an hour or so they will win a good dozen of their 16 conference regular-season matches, year in and year out. Many without breaking a sweat. (It is arguable whether they showed up for the Utah State match last year, mentally).

The other matches requiring some effort and, at times even great exertion, have usually come against New Mexico State. At least since the Aggies joined the WAC in 2005.

In a conference where the Rainbow Wahine have largely been devoid of consistent competition - or rivals - since the departure of Brigham Young a decade ago, the Aggies have come closest. The Aggies have made UH be competitive in a way few others have been able to.

New Mexico State ended UH's NCAA-record, eight-year 132-match conference winning streak two years ago and have taken the Rainbow Wahine to five games in five of the last eight meetings.

In a conference where uno-dos-adios! is the rule rather than the exception, the Aggies have been exceptional opponents. Where Fresno State showed signs of being and Nevada almost got to, the Aggies are now.

And they are hopeful of doing more. A big reason the Aggies are 7-6 this year is because they have scheduled tough in the preseason with Texas, Oregon, Stanford and Illinois. Partly to buff up the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) for postseason consideration but also to be more prepared for UH.

In the Pan American Center, where the Rainbow Wahine appear tomorrow, this budding rivalry has brought out the crowds like nothing else. Tomorrow's match is forecast to be a "smallish" 5,000 or so mostly because the Aggies are playing upstate football rival New Mexico the same day.

Just how much the matches have begun to mean here was demonstrated last year when the radio station carrying the contest from Las Cruces cut away with the match tied at 13 in Game 5 for the UH football pregame show. UH eventually won, 23-21, but the victory did little to mollify the listeners who missed out on hearing the ending or coach Dave Shoji, who got an earful afterward.

For one of the few times this WAC season, here's a match that might actually be one.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.