FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Since September, no bully has been too big and no deficit too discouraging for the sixth-ranked Hawai'i volleyball team, which rallied into the NCAA Volleyball Championship regional final last night with an 18-25, 25-22, 25-23, 25-20 win over Purdue.

The Rainbow Wahine (31-3), seeded seventh in the postseason, have won their last 18 going into tonight's match against second-seeded Stanford. The regional final — UH's fourth in the past seven years — starts at 4 p.m. Hawai'i time and will be broadcast live on ESPNU.

The winner goes to the final four next week in Omaha, Neb. Stanford has played in the last two national finals, falling to Nebraska and Penn State.

The Cardinal (29-3) convincingly beat 15th-seeded Florida (27-4) in the other semifinal, 25-14, 25-21, 25-21, before an announced crowd of 2,573 at Colorado State's Moby Arena.

Earlier, before about 500, Hawai'i groveled and grew yet again, somehow finding its way past 10th-seeded Purdue (26-9). It was led by yet another phenomenal performance from freshman Kanani Danielson, who gave the Boilermakers something to think about while her teammates struggled early with nerves and Purdue's sheer size.

"She continues to amaze me with her play," UH coach Dave Shoji said. "I thought maybe the last few matches we'd see a sign of inexperience, but she consistently plays like a veteran. All the international and junior ball really helped her and she doesn't seem to get rattled. It's amazing. She can perform under pressure. I can't see any freshman in the country better than her."

Danielson went for a match-high 21 kills on .400 hitting. Eight of those kills came in the final set, when Hawai'i scored 12 of the last 19 points. The Boilermakers' 6-foot-3 blockers bothered the 5-10 Danielson, but she consistently found a way over, through or off their long arms.

"Dave is trying to get me to be more versatile and obviously with a huge block, you can't hit seam quickly," Danielson said. "Man, they are huge. Their blockers were jumping in the seam and cutting everybody off."

She and Jamie Houston (15 kills) each had five kills in the first set, while the rest of the Rainbows had three and hit zero — or worse. In the second, Hawai'i fell into a 17-12 hole ... and suddenly started playing like its freshman.

"We hadn't played our game yet," UH junior Amber Kaufman said. "I was rattled. I just kept telling myself take a deep breath. Once we started playing, we scored a couple and then I knew the ball was rolling for us."

Tara Hittle served six in a row to put UH ahead (18-17) and force the Boilermakers to burn both timeouts. Danielson had four of her five second-set kills in the surge. After Purdue stopped the run, Kaufman buried a ball and Jayme Lee subbed in to serve Hawai'i into a 22-18 lead.

That streak was stopped on an overrule, negating Aneli Cubi-Otineru's kill. She drilled it again three serves later and Houston's seventh and eighth kills closed it. The Boilermakers, who hit .345 in the first set, hit negative .032 in the second, with Lisa Pierce getting half their eight errors.

"In the second set I thought our passing broke down a little in one rotation," Purdue coach Dave Shondell said. "We had a nice lead and we broke down where they went on a short run with Tara Hittle serving. That stole our confidence away. It was back and forth the rest of the way."

Between sets UH coaches told hitters to stop trying to hit the seam between the blockers and concentrate down the line. After hitting .129 the first two sets, they hit .344 in the final two, but first they promptly fell into a 18-12 hole. Still, they were clearly a different team. They laughed off errors and unabashedly celebrated success even while Purdue's 6-3 middles Stephanie Lynch and Kristen Arthurs punished them.

"We knew we had to have great chemistry," Danielson said. "If not, we'll die as individuals. We may have fallen a little in Game 1, but we didn't get frustrated with ourselves or the refs or anybody. We kept going. ... I thought we did a wonderful job of taking care of business."

The 5-foot-2 Lee returned and served three to cut the deficit to 19-17. She created the final point by taking a rip at a free ball from the back row and slugging it off the tape, where the Boilermakers botched it.

"I loved it," Kaufman said. "She will keep a smile on your face. I grabbed her and said, 'You are brave!' "

The Rainbows caught Purdue at 22 when 6-4 Danita Merlau hit out. The Boilermakers argued the ball went off a 'Bow. Then Pierce hit out to put UH ahead 23-22.

Purdue tied it on Lynch's eighth kill, but on the next serve the all-Big Ten senior finessed a free ball into the net. Houston's 11th kill closed out another late run as Hawai'i scored 13 of the final 18 points.

"I was very proud of the way my team competed," Shondell said. "As always, I'm disappointed for the three seniors who have done so much for the program and I've become so close to. I feel for them because they did all the things they needed to get to this point and beyond and tonight it just didn't happen, at times for obvious reasons, at times for strange reasons."

By then, the 'Bows' middle attack was a presence — Kaufman finished with 11 kills — and the Boilermakers were the ones chasing. Hawai'i made its move early in the fourth set, taking a 9-6 lead on Danielson's four-point service run. Purdue tied it at 14 when Lynch matched that, but Danielson led the Rainbows on a final run, with help from Nickie Thomas and setter Dani Mafua in the front row.

Hawai'i pulled ahead 17-14 and weathered one last assault from Lynch — one of three Purdue seniors, all from Indiana. Danielson's 20th kill gave UH match point. She and Kaufman stuffed Carrie Gurnell to end it; after a hot start, Gurnell had four kills and six errors the final three sets.

"We knew Hawai'i was outside-oriented with the freshman and Houston," Shondell said. "We did a very, very good job with Houston, but the kid is just lightening quick and has no fear."

Shoji, in his 24th regional and looking for his fifth national title, said it wasn't looking good.

"They were in control most of Game 1 and Game 2 and even Game 3 ... ," Shoji said. "Our players, on the other hand, started slowly. We were a little bit off. We couldn't pass, we couldn't do anything right. We didn't serve that tough, so it was looking a little bleak, but we rebounded and our players were determined to win the match and somehow turned the match around in the middle of Game 3. We had great performances from people off the bench. Our starters started slow, but were able to turn their games around in the middle of the match, which is a sign of maturity and just being tough."

NOTES

Stanford won despite All-American Cynthia Barboza hitting an uncharacteristic negative-.111 (4 kills, 6 errors). Foluke Akinradewo, another Cardinal senior, compensated. The 2007 national player of the year was 13 for 19 without an error (.684).

Hawai'i is the only team that leads its series with Stanford, winning 17 of the teams' 29 meetings. But the Cardinal have won eight of 10 since 1990. UH leads the NCAA series, 3-2, but all its wins came in the 1980's.

All three of UH coach Dave Shoji's kids are at Stanford — Cobey as Director of Volleyball Operations and Kawika and Erik on the men's team.

"The other day Dave called me about scheduling for next year," Stanford coach John Dunning recalled. "I said, 'How you doing? Your whole family is in my office.' He said, 'Why are they in your office?' and I said, 'Well, they are actually in Cobey's office, but they're all eating lunch together so I'll tell them you said hi.' "

The Big Ten started the tournament with five teams and is now down to defending NCAA champion Penn State, with Purdue, Michigan and Illinois losing last night and sixth-seeded Minnesota falling last week. The Pac-10 started with six teams and now has three in the final eight, with UCLA and Oregon going down last night and Hawai'i taking out USC a week ago.