TAMPA, Fla. — With two streaks on the line, something had to go in last night's NCAA Championship semifinal.

It was the University of Hawai'i's volleyball season.

The third-ranked Rainbow Wahine's wondrous year closed with a 23-25, 25-18, 25-15, 25-18 loss to top-ranked Penn State at the St. Pete Times Forum.

The Nittany Lions (37-0) extended their winning streak to 101, longest in NCAA women's history. Tomorrow they will go for an unprecedented third consecutive championship against second-ranked Texas.

The 'Bows (32-3) will finally go home, their 28-match winning streak taking them only as far as their first final four since 2003.

They played their final 10 matches on the road and went down the way they won all season long: Scrambling, slashing, bashing and watching each other's backs.

But last night — against a team that hasn't lost a match since Sept. 15, 2007, and hadn't even lost a set in nearly a month — Penn State was simply too good.

And way too big. Hawai'i was out-blocked 15 to zilch — and still held the Nittany Lions 100-plus points below their NCAA-best hitting percentage.

PSU hit a season-low .276, and won going away in the final three sets. That's how well the Rainbow Wahine played defense, and how remarkable Penn State's program has become.

"We played a good match tonight," said UH coach Dave Shoji, named national coach of the year earlier in the day. "We did some things we talked about and if you look, we held Megan Hodge under her average and (Arielle) Wilson about 20 points under hers. We were doing some things that were pretty good, but we just couldn't convert any of those digs. We had 75 digs, which was a pretty good number.

"What it shows is that Penn State is a great team. We were doing things we wanted to do, but we couldn't score. Fifteen blocks to our zero shows a little bit about why they won the match."

PSU coach Russ Rose became the third in his profession to win 1,000 matches last night, following UCLA's Andy Banachowski and Shoji, who accomplished it in October.

After a first-set hiccup, when Hawai'i's tenacity and sophomore Stephanie Ferrell's six kills seemed to shake the Lions, Penn State roared.

"We had 10 errors we were responsible for in the first game and we're not going to beat anybody, especially good teams, doing that ," Rose said. "In addition to making the mistakes, Hawai'i is very good. They didn't do anything we didn't expect them to do, we didn't know they'd do it as well as they do. They're a terrific defensive team."

With the exception of a two-match slide early, Hawai'i has been terrific all year. Penn State, Texas and UH have been ranked 1-2-3 since Oct. 12. The 'Bows were seeded 12th in the postseason, but beat up on two Big Ten teams at last week's regional to make a point, and a push for their fifth national title.

They have now lost five straight final-four matches, dating back to 1996. But, unlike the last four, last night was no fall from grace.

"I don't think I would change anything," UH senior Aneli Cubi-Otineru said. "I wish we maybe were taller, but we can't change that. I think our team gave it their all. We had 53 kills in the whole match, they had 54, so we were just down one. They're big. We did our best."

Hodge, a four-time All-American who has been the MVP of the last two final fours, led the Lions with 12 kills, but needed 55 swings and hit just .145 — 254 points below her average.

Wilson, who leads the country in hitting at .559, added 11 kills and hit .346. Blair Brown, PSU's 6-foot-5 opposite, had 10 kills. More crucially, she had seven stuffs as she helped keep UH All-American Kanani Danielson to .060 hitting.

Setter Alisha Glass, the Lions' fourth first-team All-American, hit .692 with nine kills.

The one regret Shoji had was not trying to get Danielson, only 5-10, against another blocker. She still led the 'Bows, with 14 kills and 11 digs — her eighth double-double — but never found a rhythm.

No Rainbow Wahine really did, after Ferrell's hot start.

"We were very shaky," said UH setter Dani Mafua, whose 17 digs gave her a sixth double-double. "They were a really tough serving team. Some of the passes were not in the ideal spot, but that was no excuse. I know it's my job to put the ball where my hitters can put it away.

"Not only that, but they're a big team. It came down to size. The energy we have to exert is twice what they have to because of their size."

While the Rainbows' defense was often astonishing — libero Liz Ka'aihue led the way with 18 digs — they simply could never convert. Senior Amber Kaufman was the only hitter above .200, and she had the team's only three aces.

The Rainbow Wahine gave the Nittany Lions only their fifth set loss of the season to open the match, out-hitting them .289 to .231. Then, when Penn State's block adjusted to Hawai'i's low angles and its servers started to cause some chaos, UH simply could not cope.

Not that anyone else has for the past three years.

"We really wanted to force a fifth game ," Shoji said. "I don't think our team ever gave up, had a defeated attitude. They looked each other in the eye and everybody was determined to turn the match around. We just couldn't. I think we ran out of a little bit of gas. We had to expend a lot of energy. We dug a lot ot balls and swung at a lot of balls, but eventually they just wear you down."