Third-ranked Hawai'i will tweak and fine tune on its final road trip of the regular season, while its Western Athletic Conference opponents fight for their postseason volleyball lives.

The Rainbow Wahine (23-2, 13-0 WAC) close the WAC season with matches at Boise tomorrow, Idaho Saturday and Utah State Monday. They come home for four days before taking off again for the WAC Tournament, Nov. 23 to 25, in Las Vegas.

Hawai'i has clinched its 14th WAC regular-season title in as many years of membership. The Vandals and New Mexico State, who split their series this season, are the only other teams with winning conference records, and Las Vegas reservations.

The middle of the WAC pack is pummeling each other to try and get the final three slots at the new streamlined, six-team WAC Tournament. Fresno State started last week in fourth and Nevada sixth; after the Wolf Pack's win in Fresno Monday they have swapped places.

Utah State, which lost here Sunday, is in seventh and on the wrong side of the bubble with nine losses.

The Rainbow Wahine are worried more about preparing for the NCAA postseason at this point. They have won their last 19 — the longest streak since 2005 — but bumped up just one in this week's NCAA Ratings Percentage Index, where they are 21st. The WAC is woeful in the power ranking, with NMSU next at 78th — down seven from the previous RPI two weeks ago.

From there, it is Idaho (163), FSU (209), Nevada (210), Utah State (219), Boise (256), Louisiana Tech (259) and San Jose State (275). The Spartans are 55 spots from the bottom.

Boise is in the midst of its finest WAC season; one more win would set a WAC high.

Idaho is the country's best blocking team, with Anna McKinney and Debbie Pederson ranking ninth and 10th nationally (UH freshman Brittany Hewitt is 12th). The Vandals have out-blocked opponents 98-41 in their last seven matches. Idaho senior Sarah Conwell has a WAC-high 14 double-doubles, including her last seven, and is third in WAC kills (3.83).

Utah State's Liz McArthur (3.81) is fourth. The Rainbow Wahine had her hitting for a negative percentage Sunday, until late. She finished with seven kills — a team high — and a .097 attack percentage.

Hawai'i has been extremely successful shutting down opponent's best weapons. The first time the 'Bows played Idaho, Conwell had eight kills and hit .071.

NOTES

Hawai'i has won its last 25 against WAC opponents since losing to New Mexico State last season.

The Rainbow Wahine lead the WAC in every team statistic but blocking and digs. They are among the top 35 nationally in every statistic but digs, where they rank 249th.

In this week's individual national statistics, Amber Kaufman is third in hitting (.477), Aneli Cubi-Otineru (0.58) fifth in aces, Dani Mafua 12th in assists and Kanani Danielson (4.08) has risen to 36th in kills.

Saint Francis graduate Kylie Harrington had a career-high 25 kills for Nevada in its win Monday. She ranks fifth in the WAC.

After losing its first match last week, Texas rose to first in the new NCAA RPI, followed by unbeaten Penn State and Florida State. There are three Big Ten teams in the top seven and four Pac-10 teams in the top nine. That includes UCLA (8) and Stanford (9), teams that UH swept. Washington State is the lowest-rated Pac-10 team at No. 53.