RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM Hawaii seniors Sarah Mason, left, and Cayley Thurlby watched the senior night festivities last night.

Seniors celebrate their night with win

Hawaii defeats New Mexico State before honoring Kamana'o, Mason and Thurlby

Could they have asked for anything more?

A season-high crowd of 7,207 (8,611 tickets issued) that was uncharacteristically hostile toward an opponent. Or, in the words of senior setter Kanoe Kamana'o, "plenty selective cheering."

It was a perfect night of celebration for Hawaii's three seniors, who enjoyed a 30-16, 30-18, 24-30, 30-23 victory over new-found nemesis New Mexico State even more than being buried under the post-match leis or the Warriors football players performing the haka after Game 2.

The 14th-ranked Rainbow Wahine more than avenged their first Western Athletic Conference loss in eight years, turning the 20th-ranked Aggies from title contenders into pretenders. Hawaii (21-5, 13-1) all but clinched its 11th straight WAC regular-season championship last night, stepping over New Mexico State (29-2, 12-2) to get back atop the conference standings.

The Wahine finish the regular season on the road this week at Boise State on Wednesday and Idaho on Friday before spending Thanksgiving week in Reno, Nev., at the WAC Tournament.

"This was a pretty big win for us," Kamana'o said. "We'll use this to carry on to Boise and Idaho and then the WAC tournament. And I'm pretty sure we'll face this team (NMSU) again."

Kamana'o became the 21st setter to reach at least 6,000 assists in NCAA history when connecting with junior Jamie Houston for a 20-13 lead in Game 4. Houston finished with a match-high 24 kills to go with 15 digs.

Senior hitter Sarah Mason had a near 20-20 night (20 kills, match-high 19 digs) to go with four service aces. The Wahine outblocked the Aggies 15-11, with junior middle Kari Gregory in on 11, and freshman hitter Amber Kaufman six.

"I'm so proud of how our younger players stepped up tonight," senior reserve setter Cayley Thurlby said. "It was a great night with a lot of emotion. I'm thankful we were able to stay focused with so much riding on the match."

Thurlby served the first aloha ball at 29-22. Hawaii needed two more swings to end it -- appropriately enough, one for each senior -- with Mason getting the party started with her 20th kill.

"Revenge tastes so good right now," Mason said. "We scouted them well, did everything we needed to do.

"We played a hell of a match, but we can only hang onto this moment for so long. We have a long way to go, have a lot of work ahead of us, but we will be back."

For the Wahine to have a return visit home, they'd either have to host an NCAA tournament first-round match or -- if sent on the road for the first two rounds -- make it back for the regional semifinal that will be held at the Stan Sheriff Center.

It's a long road back, Hawaii coach Dave Shoji said.

"I told the team that we couldn't get too high if we won or too low if we lost. We've got a lot bigger games in our future. This is big for now, big tonight for senior night because we didn't want to lose. But it's one of three or four big matches we'll have over the next few weeks."

New Mexico State finishes out at home with Fresno State and San Jose State before heading to Reno. The Aggies know they'll have to do a better job at serving (19 errors) and getting the ball to their junior middles earlier and more often than they did last night if they want to beat Hawaii in the anticipated title match next week.

Middle Kim Oguh finished with nine kills but had just two after Game 2, while middle Amber Simpson had seven. The two came into the week as the top two hitters in the WAC percentage-wise, at .400-plus, but Oguh climbed out of negative percentage to finish at .240 and Simpson was at .091.

Alice Borden led the Aggies with 11 kills.

"I'm very disappointed in our lack of competitive fire," NMSU coach Mike Jordan said. "We were not emotionally ready to play. Hawaii had a lot to do with what was going wrong for us -- they served well, blocked well.

"After Game 2, it was more than just making adjustments, it was about getting into the fight. I thought we could get a chance to go to five again, but Hawaii passed a lot better here than at our place and when they're in system they can beat anyone."

This was the first time in four meetings that the outcome wasn't decided by a Game 5. Hawaii won twice last season, and New Mexico State won last month in Las Cruces.