Sixth-ranked Hawai'i's volleyball quantity overwhelmed its quality and Louisiana Tech last night.

Showing the effects of nearly two weeks without a match, the Rainbow Wahine still plowed to a 25-15, 25-19, 25-9 win in a battle of the Western Athletic Conference's top and bottom.

Before a crowd of 4,807 at Stan Sheriff Center, the 'Bows (13-2, 6-0 WAC) needed less than 90 minutes to finish off the Techsters (2-12, 0-6). UH has won its last 12 — and 18 consecutive sets — going into tomorrow's 5 p.m. match against WAC runner-up New Mexico State.

The Aggies (10-7, 5-1) and LaTech are dramatically different, but two weeks ago on the road, Hawai'i swept both.

On a scale of 1 to 10, Rainbow Wahine setter Dani Mafua and hitter Stephanie Ferrell gave their team a 6 and 7 last night.

"We started slow," admitted Ferrell, who replaced Kanani Herring in the second set and hit a torrid 8-for-9. "But we picked up our intensity in the second game and we pulled it together."

Coach Dave Shoji was not as generous, preferring to give his team a "C" grade. The Techsters' 43 points tied Ohio and Cincinnati for fewest points allowed in this first year of 25-point sets, but UH gave them a dozen on service errors and never looked sharp in serve-receive. Serving and passing have been the team's strengths this season, and were the difference in New Mexico.

"It's sometimes hard to look good against a team that is a little unorthodox," Shoji said. "And we had some rust out there early, and into the second game especially."

Part of the problem was Herring's lingering ankle injury. She missed the match in LaTech and only played backrow the last two matches. Last night she played all the way around in the first set, but was replaced by Ferrell early in the second when Shoji felt she "didn't appear to be moving well enough to make a difference."

Ferrell made a huge difference. "She played pretty well on the road trip," Shoji said. "She plays with a lot of energy and she definitely brings some pace to our game. She's a young player and she makes some mistakes, but she also makes things happen all the time."

Part of the problem was also Louisiana Tech, a struggling program with a new coach — Matt Sonnichsen, formerly of Tulsa.

"Playing a team like that, the caliber isn't as high and it's like rat-a-tat ball and a lot of balls that are coming over, it's like, 'Oh my gosh, what is that?' " Mafua said. "You are waiting and it wasn't a crushed ball."

"It was a mental thing, I think," Ferrell said.

Both were confident they could "flip a switch" for NMSU, as they did before. They flipped it a few times last night.

After scoring four of the night's first five points, the Rainbows looked very much like they hadn't played in a while. Five service errors prevented them from extending their advantage until Tara Hittle served five in a row to make it 22-13.

Aneli Cubi-Otineru and Jamie Houston each had three kills to anchor the attack, which hit .450. The Techsters hit .000, with seven kills and as many errors.

It got worse, for both teams, early in the second set. Hawai'i called time trailing 6-7. It was hitting negative .200, to LaTech's negative .333.

The break helped the 'Bows. Subbing liberally, they scored 14 of the next 18 points to regain control, and didn't make any hitting errors. Ferrell buried all four sets she saw and Houston planted two balls so quickly the LaTech defense was frozen.

It got ugly again at the end, but by then the outcome was not in doubt. The third set was more of the same with Hawai'i bursting to a 10-2 advantage. It used 13 players and got solid performances from every reserve.

Houston led the Rainbows with 10 kills and Cubi-Otineru added eight, with Amber Kaufman going 4-for-6 without an error and assisting on four of six blocks. KC Clayton led LaTech with six kills, on .417 hitting, and three of her team's four stuffs.

Sonnichsen called the WAC much improved "after the shift" of teams a decade ago and had no excuses. "Hawai'i," he said, "is on a different planet than us right now."

NOTES

The UH men's volleyball team will conduct scrimmages next Saturday (Oct. 18) with two alumni matches preceding the 7 p.m. varsity exhibition. "Oldest" alumni play at 4 p.m., followed by "old" alumni at 5 p.m. Admission is free.