For the better part of four years you got the feeling the New Mexico State women's volleyball team had been walking into the Stan Sheriff Center wondering.

Wondering, that is, if it could really beat the decade-long Western Athletic Conference powerhouse that has been the University of Hawai'i.

The Aggies have gazed at the row of national championship banners and, no doubt, felt a little of the intimidation of the place the Rainbow Wahine call home.

But this time it was different.

As they alighted from their vans for practice in preparation for today's opening round of the WAC Volleyball Tournament, the 21-7 (15-1 WAC) Aggies strode in as equals.

They arrived as the only regular-season champions UH has shared the WAC with in a decade. The Aggies, the No. 1 seed and winners of 13 matches in a row, entered with a business-like nonchalance of a team no longer wide-eyed or intimidated by all that the arena has symbolized.

In short, they are a team that has won here, having not only beaten but swept the Rainbow Wahine on the floor five weeks ago.

"Definitely a little of the monkey is off our backs," head coach Mike Jordan said as the Aggies tuned up for a 5 p.m. match against the winner of Fresno State and Louisiana Tech.

More like a gorilla. Since coming into the WAC in 2005, UH has been the standard by which NMSU has attempted to measure itself. Others, too, have sought the same path. Only the Aggies have gone to such lengths and made it work. NMSU recruited to chase UH. It scheduled to compete with UH.

And progress had come haltingly. The Aggies took UH to five sets several times. Once, two years ago, they beat the Rainbow Wahine in Las Cruces, N.M.

But never, until last month, had the Aggies been able to dispatch the Rainbow Wahine here, the final hurdle to getting a piece of the WAC regular-season title. "It had been a little discouraging," acknowledged Krystal Torres, a senior libero.

Now, it is game-on in the WAC Tournament. Perhaps unlike any other year since 1998 when Brigham Young and the Rainbow Wahine did battle in a classic.

A real rival has finally emerged. Somebody to test and, hopefully, bring out the best in UH in the postseason. Someone UH has to take serious. Evidence of that, as UH coach Dave Shoji said on his radio show, is the Rainbow Wahine devoted part of their preparation time to New Mexico State in anticipation of a Sunday showdown for the title and NCAA berth.

Aggie middle Amber Simpson said, "We're both co-champs and this is going to be the deciding factor in who is really the WAC champion."

The Aggies are back in town and, to be sure, they are no longer awed to be here.

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