LAS CRUCES, N.M. — Seventh-ranked Hawai'i walked into the Pan American Center yesterday believing it could deal with anything New Mexico State and its volleyball crowd would throw at it. The Rainbow Wahine walked out knowing it.

With exceptional composure and without its freshman phenom in the front row, Hawai'i swept the Aggies to take over first place in the Western Athletic Conference. The scores were close — 26-24, 25-20, 25-23 — and a couple key points decided every set. But this time, the 'Bows got all those points in front of 2,347 frustrated fans.

Even the size of the crowd was in Hawai'i's favor. It was less than half what the Aggies had hoped, with the Whole Enchilada Fiesta, NMSU-New Mexico football game and a spate of high school volleyball matches keeping it relatively low in what will probably be the 'Bows' most hostile WAC road setting.

All four matches the teams previously played here went five sets. Two years ago, NMSU broke up Hawai'i's NCAA-record 132-match conference winning streak. Last year, the Rainbows fought off six match points and groveled for 110 digs before winning 23-21 in the fifth.

Yesterday they were determined it would be different and it was — dramatically. It lasted half as long as last year's marathon and both teams combined had just 73 digs. Hawai'i (11-2 overall, 4-0 WAC) won its 10th straight by holding off the Aggies (8-7, 3-1) in the first set, overtaking them in the second and relentlessly running them down in the third.

"We just had to stay composed," said UH junior Aneli Cubi-Otineru. "That was the key. When we played here last year we heard the crowd, pretty rowdy and obnoxious. You just have to focus on shutting them out."

Cubi-Otineru was everywhere, once she threw off the mask she had been wearing the last three matches to protect her nose. It came off in the middle of the first set — "I had a hard time seeing with the lights and everything" — and she finished with what has become the Rainbow daily double-double: 10 kills, 12 digs and seemingly always in the right place at the right time.

Hawai'i needed her amazing instincts because freshman Kanani Herring, so stellar to start her career, was not quite well enough to play front row. Coach Dave Shoji said her ankle, sprained Monday, was "about 85 percent" and he did not want to risk her health jumping at the net, though she looked as polished as ever on defense.

Redshirt freshman Stephanie Ferrell subbed for Herring — second on the team in kills — in the front and finished with nine kills, two of the 'Bows' three blocks and one memorable fisted shot from a prone position.

That came in the middle of Hawai'i's final surge. UH took its final timeout down 18-13 in the third. Lindsey Yon, who led the Aggies with 11 kills but hit just .135, hit out. Ferrell was blocked on the next serve and she and Dani Mafua scrambled to keep the ball up in the near corner, falling as they did. Before Ferrell's hand hit the floor she punched the ball over with a right hook. It went off an Aggie and out of bounds.

"That was something that just fired everybody up," Shoji said. "It was laughable, everybody was laughing. Sometimes you need something like that to spark you."

NMSU shanked Stephanie Brandt's next serve and Nickie Thomas buried the errant ball to make it 18-16. The Aggies called time, but hit out.

"You never have a lot of room for error when you are playing a great team," said NMSU coach Mike Jordan, who now has five losses to top-20 teams. "The name of the game is serve and pass and Hawai'i did that better than we did tonight.

"Their team has played a lot of good competition just like we have. They're battle tested. They're not going to run from a fight. They made plays at the end of games."

Hawai'i ultimately caught the Aggies at 20 and passed them on a Cubi-Otineru kill and rare miss from all-conference middle Amber Simpson. The 'Bows' final two points came on another NMSU hitting error and another Cubi-Otineru kill.

She also ended the tense first set by stuffing Whitney Woods, after the Aggies had fought off two set points.

New Mexico State took its first lead of the match in the second, moving to a 7-4 advantage on Jamie Houston's fifth hitting error. Brandt came into the backrow for Houston and, after a Thomas kill, Tara Hittle served four in a row to put Hawai'i ahead for good, at 9-7.

Hittle had her second and — career-high — third aces of the match during the run, and would finish with four. Jordan thought this Hawai'i team was the best he had seen since moving into the WAC and yesterday he was sure, primarily because its serving and passing has improved so much.

Houston would return in the front row and bury five of her last six swings that set. The senior rallied with 10 kills and .500 hitting after her slump.

"I was too amped at first," Houston said. "When I calmed myself down I thought I played a lot better."

Houston thought the Aggies might have been too "amped" as well. "Now we play calm," she said. "They get more amped and try to feed off that. And, we're used to the crowd."

The Hawai'i middles also put the hurt on New Mexico State, with Thomas and Amber Kaufman each going 8-for-16 with a lone error. The Rainbows were ripping from everywhere and, this time anyway, the Aggies could not cope.

"They were just better," said Jordan, who hopes his team will have its new elements more settled with it comes to Hawai'i in two weeks. "Amber Kaufman is really tough to deal with. She does a lot of good things. I thought their outside hitters did a better job of shot selection than they have in the past, especially when they were out of system. Last year we could count on them making a lot of errors if they passed it or set it bad. They have really cut that down."

The Rainbows close this trip tomorrow at San Jose State, at 4 p.m. HST. The match will be broadcast live on 1420 AM.