Style points slowed as the night wore on, but 15th-ranked Hawai'i scored more than enough points to pound Utah State, 30-14, 30-23, 30-18, last night in a Western Athletic Conference volleyball match.

The victory extended the Rainbow Wahine's conference winning streak to 129 and put them in a tie with Nevada for first. Both teams are 4-0 going into tomorrow's 4 p.m. match at Stan Sheriff Center.

Last night, before a home crowd of 5,264, Hawai'i (10-4) meticulously took the Aggies (10-9, 3-3 WAC) apart in a work-of-art first game. The Rainbows couldn't keep up the near-perfect pace, throwing in a little finger painting in the final two games, particularly the six service errors in Game 2.

But by the end, every healthy Rainbow had a finger in this one and still Hawai'i's statistics were a bit mind-boggling against Utah State. The Aggies have been to three of the past seven NCAA Tournaments, but are now without a senior and 75 percent of last year's offense.

"We came out like a deer in the headlights and that's a little discouraging to me," first-year Aggie coach Grayson DuBose said. "This is such a great environment. The bulk of our kids had never played here so I think it is a little intimidating. We don't see that many people in a whole season."

UH sophomore Jamie Houston crushed a game-high 23 kills in the 'Bows' fourth sweep in as many WAC matches.

"Jamie Houston is as physical as a lot of the guys I used to coach," said DuBose, an assistant for the Brigham Young men the past four years. "She's a wonderful volleyball player and that's just a wonderful, experienced volleyball team."

Houston also had a game-high six hitting errors — three more than the rest of the team combined. Kari Gregory, Juliana Sanders and, especially, Sarah Mason were so effective they had one hitting error between them. They combined for 32 kills and hit .564.

But the offense was almost forgotten in one glaring, unwritten statistic: Hawai'i, terrorized by bad ball handling all season, had zero reception errors.

"It you saw us play last week I think you would say that was a major breakthrough," Shoji said. "Our (passing accuracy) percentage wasn't that great, but we didn't get aced so we were able to set the ball to somebody and we hit for a high percentage. That's a major step forward for us, to not give them a free point."

Game 1 was over in a matter of minutes — 19 to be exact. Utah State called both its timeouts in the first 11. By then, it trailed 18-8. Hawai'i had yet to miss, going 10 for 17 without an error as setter Kanoe Kamana'o isolated hitters against a single block for nearly half the kills.

Gregory hit out to give the Aggies their ninth point but she more than made up. She served two five-point runs, had three aces in the game — one more than her previous career total — and was in on seven of the nine Hawai'i stuffs on the night.

Mason also had a pair of aces in a brilliant game that foretold a brilliant match. She would finish with 14 kills in 21 swings without an error (.667) and 18 digs — a third of the team total. She was a kill short of a double-double after two games.

"I was just trying to stay efficient," Mason said. "It's not all about hitting the ball hard, you've got to hit it smart, try to find holes in the court and holes in the block and mix up your shots. ... I think that should be our No. 1 goal, to decrease errors and stay efficient."

Hawai'i has six matches left in the next 10 days, including its longest road trip distance-wise. That made it even more thankful for the 85-minute match.

"We needed the match to be easy for the start of seven matches in 11 days," Shoji said. "We got out without expending a lot of energy so I think we're off to a great start for the next 10 days."

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.