RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM Jamie Houston led Hawaii with 17 kills last night.

Rainbow Wahine roll over Bulldogs

This is crunch time.

The countdown to the end of the regular season is at four matches. The conference tournament is three weeks away.

There is a sense of urgency to not just win but to win convincingly. And to play well doing it.

No. 11 Hawaii has done that the past two outings, capping a successful home stand with yet another sweep. Yesterday, it was Louisiana Tech that fell victim to Hawaii's sharpened focus.

Led by Jamie Houston's 17 kills and a .330 team hitting percentage, the Rainbow Wahine needed only 88 minutes to top the Lady Techsters 30-20, 30-15, 30-16 at the Stan Sheriff Center. Hawaii continued to close in on its 12th Western Athletic Conference title, improving to 18-4 overall, 12-0 in the WAC.

Wahine sophomore hitter Aneli Cubi-Otineru turned in her seventh double-double, with 12 kills and 10 digs. Senior middle Juliana Sanders added 10 kills with her one error coming on her 16th and final attempt.

The Lady Techsters, getting a team-high seven kills from Shannon Phillips, fell to 6-20 and 1-12.

"Louisiana Tech is a real scrappy team," Sanders said. "They were digging balls that we thought were down. They put up a good fight and we had to make the adjustments.

"After losing to Nebraska (last Sunday) ... it's not an anger thing. It's more of a wake-up call, a sense of urgency that we need to start playing harder. We still have times when there's a lack of concentration. We need to have a strong mental focus."

There wasn't much for Wahine coach Dave Shoji to fault. He was able to use 16 players, with the final two points coming from freshman middle Amanda Simmons via a kill and her second career ace.

"That was fun," Simmons said.

And it was a enjoyable weekend for Shoji, who saw about 30 of his former players in the alumnae match earlier yesterday.

"We had a good weekend," Shoji said of the wins over No. 13 New Mexico State and LaTech. "Everybody talked about how we needed to play better (after Nebraska) but we had to go out and actually do it.

"I'm not sure how much we've improved (in the past week) but we've played better. I think our level was higher than it was last Sunday. Tonight, I was hoping that we'd be efficient and focused and we were. Now, we focus on Nevada. We'd had trouble with them up there."

Hawaii leaves tomorrow night for its match with Nevada on Thursday. The Wahine then face Fresno State on Friday.

Yesterday was the start of a three-matches-in-eight-days trek for the Lady Techsters.

"If we had an offense like our blocking and defense, we actually might be in the middle of the WAC," Tech coach Heather Mazeitis said. "Our offense struggled. Next year, we're going to have some changes and we will be better. Our youth will have grown.

"I really enjoy playing here. It's like the Super Bowl of volleyball. It's such an experience to play here. Period. That's what we want our players to take away from this."