For almost an entire tennis season something nagged at the University of Hawai'i men. They were good, but rarely good enough. The Rainbows threatened, but could not make good on their threats.

Suddenly, at the Western Athletic Conference Championship of all places, they did. The key came from the final few rungs of the ladder. Hawai'i won its first WAC title and goes into its first 64-team NCAA Championship tomorrow at Malibu, Calif., because Spence Mendoza and Jeff Fitch turned on the afterburners the last five weeks.

The WAC's last three Freshmen of the Year — Dennis Lajola, Andreas Weber and Sascha Heinemann — put the 'Bows in position to win all season against a schedule riddled with ranked teams. They are 38-10 in the top three positions. But sweet success could not come until the lower half of the ladder caught up oncourt.

"We have three No. 1 players," said John Nelson, WAC Coach of the Year in his fifth season. "They can play anyone in the nation and beat them. I'm that confident. And I had confidence in the lower guys because they were always working hard and learning.

"They were trying the right stuff in competition so, win or lose, I was happy. By the end of the season, every time they were on the court they were taking care of business."

Mendoza, who will play No. 4 against 13th-ranked Pepperdine tomorrow, clinched the WAC championship with a 7-5 victory in the third set against his opponent from 49th-ranked Fresno State two weeks ago. Fitch, who will play No. 5, ended 32nd-ranked Boise State's dreams of a fourth consecutive WAC title when he held on for a 7-5 third-set victory in the semifinals.

Fitch, a junior from Calsbad, Calif., is on a five-match winning streak. Mendoza, a Kealakehe graduate from Waikoloa, has won his last four. The Rainbows have won six straight and memories of all those painfully close losses have been poached.

Pepperdine has won its last 15 and just captured its 18th straight West Coast Conference title. Its anchor is two-time WCC Player of the Year Andre Begermann, ranked 11th in the country and 25-8 at No. 1.

He will face Lajola, the 'Aiea boy who left Hawai'i as a high school freshman to train and play all over the world, and came back home a man, winning a USTA Futures event and deciding to play for Manoa.

Lajola is 9-5 and the 'Bows' only first-team all-conference singles player. He has complemented second-teamers Heinemann and Weber, his close friends from Germany, who helped UH to its highest ranking ever last year — 75. After their WAC championship, the 'Bows broke into the rankings for the first time in 2008, at No. 63.

Even they are not quite sure how far they can take this. It would have seemed silly to even think about it before this wondrous streak started April 4 against 66th-ranked UC Irvine.

"Andy, Sascha and Dennis, through the season they've always been winning," Fitch said. "It was kind of on us. ... I had a lot of ups and downs and I felt like I had nothing to lose. I just had to go for it."

Mendoza believes his team rode the perfect wave at the WAC Championship, a combination of the relentless competitiveness of the top three and the realization that they had all done the work, and had only one brief moment left to grab the right results. Mendoza was "ecstatic" when it was over, and Hawai'i had beaten all odds.

"The way I look at it is I have these teammates that are always putting up new goals, always working hard," said Mendoza, who fell to Mikey Lim in the 2006 state high school final. "I try and see it as an opportunity for me to get better with them."

After every loss this season, Nelson insisted to his team that it was OK — "our goal is to win the WAC." When it finally happened, he insists he was not surprised. He knew his players would not get caught up in the moment after the brutal schedule. Nelson was so confident his team was in the right place that he told the Boise coach — before facing Fresno — he would see him at nationals.

The losses had not beat his team down. After the 'Bows' last loss he called a team meeting where everyone spoke.

"At the end of the meeting I said, 'Is there anything that's been said today that's going to stop us from winning the WAC?' " Nelson recalled. "They said no. So everything was out and there were no distractions.

"When I came here I had a list. I honestly expect us to be Top 10. That was on the list, winning the WAC was on my list. I knew we were capable this year, but these guys win the points."

Big West champion UC Santa Barbara, ranked 58th, faces 22nd-ranked Stanford in tomorrow's other first-round match in Malibu. The winners play Sunday for the right to advance to Tulsa for the final rounds, May 16 to 20. The Cardinal has won 17 NCAA tennis titles.