ASSOCIATED PRESS Hawaii's Juliana Sanders hit the ball past Texas' Brandy Magee during yesterday's match in Austin, Texas.

Rainbow Wahine get out of Texas

AUSTIN, Texas » It was the calm before the storm.

The calmness of a veteran team knowing not to panic when getting beat in every phase of the game for the first 30 minutes. The ability to storm back over the last 85 minutes when making the right adjustments, getting huge nights from first-year players, and serving and blocking Texas off the court.

Hawaii rode out a shaky start last night at Gregory Gym, riding the arms of freshman Jamie Houston and transfer Sarah Mason, to eliminate the young but talented Longhorns from the NCAA tournament 19-30, 30-18, 30-21, 30-20. The pair of left-side hitters combined for 35 of the Rainbow Wahine's 63 kills to give Hawaii its 21st consecutive victory and a trip to Penn State for next week's regional.

The seventh-seeded Wahine (27-6) take on 10th-seeded Missouri (26-8) in Friday's first match at Rec Hall at 11 a.m. Hawaii time. In the other matchup, No. 2 seed Penn State (31-2) faces 15th-seeded Tennessee (23-8). Friday's winners play Saturday for the regional championship and a berth in the final four in San Antonio.

"Getting to Penn State was our goal ... one of our goals," Hawaii setter Kanoe Kamana'o said after the Wahine won their 41st straight on an opponent's home court. "But we had to beat a great Texas team to get there. We had a difficult time in Game 1, playing defense, trying to block their hitters.

"We made the right adjustments in Games 2, 3 and 4. We started serving tougher, caused them problems with their passing so they couldn't get their offense going. And my hitters just ripped."

A crowd of 1,526 -- not even enough to fill Klum Gym -- saw the biggest bombs come from Houston (match-high 20 kills, .529) and Mason (15, .448) off the bench. But it was the Wahine's overall balance that kept Texas (24-5) off-balance, with senior middle Victoria Prince adding 10 kills (.474) and eight blocks, and senior hitter Susie Boogaard nine kills (.444) and four blocks.

"I thought our seniors played their best match of the year," said Wahine coach Dave Shoji, who celebrates his 59th birthday today. "We needed our seniors to step up and they certainly did."

Hawaii stepped it up at the service line and the net as well. The Wahine had a 6-0 edge in aces over the Longhorns, five in the last three games, as well as a 14-5 edge in blocks, a 13-3 advantage in the last three games.

Texas had one block after Game 2, with Hawaii hitting .514 in Game 3 and .457 in Game 4. The credit for the Wahine's effectiveness went to Kamana'o.

"Kanoe stayed really calm and matched up our hitters really well," Mason said.

"Kanoe did a phenomenal job keeping us off-balance," said Texas coach Jerritt Elliott, his team losing at home for the first time in 12 matches this year. "Hawaii got us on our heels after Game 1, started picking it up in the second game, and we never got our rhythm back.

"We ran into two buzz saws (Houston and Mason) on the outside. We thought we were at a point where we'd be a contender for the final four, and it certainly looked that way in the first game."

The Longhorns, who handed top-ranked Nebraska its only loss a week ago, were held to their lowest point total of the season in Game 2, hitting negative .028. It never got much better as the Wahine won the serve-and-pass game and kept Texas' Brandy Magee in check.

The 6-2 junior middle finished with 15 kills, but just eight after Game 1. Junior hitter Dariam Acevedo led Texas with 16 kills, many coming from behind the 3-meter line to avoid the Hawaii block, and freshman middle Lauren Paolini added 10 kills.

Senior libero Ashley Watanabe led the Wahine with 13 digs. Hawaii is 12-0 in NCAA second-round matches and is advancing to a regional for the eighth straight season.

It was also the Wahine's fifth consecutive win over the Longhorns dating back to the loss in the 1988 NCAA final.

In the crowd: In attendance last night were former Wahine setters Margaret Vakasausau and Jen Carey, teammates from 1999 to 2002. Vakasausau flew in from her marketing job in New York, while Carey drove up from College Station, Texas, where she is the director of volleyball operations for Texas A&M. The Aggies, who will host next week's regional, were eliminated in Thursday's first round by Northwestern, 3-2 .

Note: Penn State rolled over Long Island 30-11, 30-27, 30-9 and Tennessee outlasted Minnesota 30-19, 24-30, 20-30, 30-27, 15-11 last night in the other half of Hawaii's bracket.