Nevada was not nearly as bad in last night's volleyball loss to 15th-ranked Hawai'i as it appeared last year at Stan Sheriff Center. The Wolf Pack was simply not nearly good enough.

The Rainbow Wahine (11-4) blew past the Pack, 30-23, 30-20, 30-25, before an afternoon crowd of 5,103. That extended their winning streak against Western Athletic Conference opponents to 130 and snagged sole possession of first place at 5-0. Nevada (10-7) dropped to 4-1 when its hopes for a third-game reprieve died in a late flurry of Hawai'i points.

The 'Bows owned this match for 2 1/2 games. Nevada could not hurt them and could not cope with Jamie Houston (18 kills, 10 digs) and Kari Gregory (12 kills, four blocks). But just when Hawai'i had the Pack where it wanted, there was a hiccup.

The passing that had improved so dramatically over the last five games took a dive along with the Rainbows' attention span. Nevada transformed a 17-12 third-game deficit into a 23-20 advantage just by keeping the ball in play.

"It wasn't a loss of control," Houston said, "just a loss of focus."

It ended on Sarah Mason's 11th kill. Gregory and Kanoe Kamana'o stuffed a Nevada spike and Hawai'i's sixth ace landed on the endline to tie it at 23. A moment later, the seventh ace put UH back ahead (25-24).

Two Nevada ballhandling errors and two final Houston kills over freshmen blockers Sage Aune and Jorgan Staker put UH on the brink. Houston's sweet dig led to a Mason kill on match point.

"I reminded them after the second game that it was 41-21 with nine minutes to go (in the football game) last night," UH coach Dave Shoji said. "I was hoping that was not the case with us, where we didn't go into cruise control, but we did in the middle of the third game. We just stopped playing hard and they got a little lead and we had to make some really nice plays at the end to win the game.

It was nice to see we could kick it back into gear."

A year ago, Nevada also came here unbeaten, and got throttled in an 81-minute match where it scored just 40 points and hit for a negative percentage. Hawai'i played just as well most of last night, and the Pack, which upset then-No. 22 New Mexico State last week, was much improved. Still, this wasn't close with the exception of the final few minutes.

"Where they absolutely crushed us was Houston, hitting .417 with 18 kills," Nevada caoch Devin Scruggs said. "We didn't have an answer for her."

Few have. Houston was averaging more than five kills a game before the WAC season started. She is at nearly eight kills a game in conference play.

"Physically, they can't slow her down much," Shoji said. "The middles are a little under-sized from what we saw earlier in the preseason. And, she's getting better, no doubt about it. She's elevating and picking her spots and seeing the block better. She's cut way down on her errors. It's nice to see her developing into an outstanding player."

Nevada called the first timeout of the match trailing 21-15 in Game 1. The Wolf Pack was hitting .458 at the time, yet was in danger of losing touch. It did, when Mason, Gregory and Kamana'o reached out and touched Nevada's next three swings, roofing them all to put Hawai'i up by nine.

The next game was in stark contrast early, with both teams spraying shots out. Hawai'i got a grip and pulled ahead 15-10 behind Houston and never looked back.

NOTES

The Rainbow Wahine host Boise State tonight (7 p.m.) before leaving to play Louisiana Tech Wednesday and New Mexico State Friday. The Broncos beat Fresno State Saturday.

Hawai'i has won 20 straight games against WAC competition, going back to last year's WAC Tournament semifinal against Nevada.

Next Tuesday's (Oct. 17) match against Notre Dame has been moved up to 6 p.m. because of a flight time change for the Irish's return trip. It was originally scheduled for 7 p.m. The teams also play next Monday (Oct. 16), at 7 p.m.

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.