Since Hawaii won its last national championship in women’s volleyball in 1987, Rainbow Wahine teams have been scrappy, overpowering, underachieving, tenacious, over-achieving, tentative and everything in between. They have gone to six more final fours and reached a regional every year but three.

Each of those teams was very different and this year’s group, which opens the NCAA tournament Friday in Seattle, is no different. These Wahine never know who will be standing next to them at the beginning, middle or end of the match. They have been up, down and all but TKO’d, but haven’t lost since Sept. 9.

Hawaii is 26-2, ranked eighth and takes a 19-match winning streak into its first-round match against Santa Clara. The Wahine got Dave Shoji his 1,100th coaching win on their last trip, which put their frequent flier miles over 21,000 for the season. They have been through six five-setters and are still standing. They were ready for whatever the NCAA threw at them Sunday.

These Wahine just win, Davey.

"We’re healthy, I think we’re fresh, we have a good attitude right now," Shoji says. "We’re confident. Anything can happen, but the one thing I know we’ll do is give our best effort.

"Almost every match we’ve been down, the whole team just really comes together. You can probably point to (Emily) Hartong carrying the team, but that’s not all of it. The passing comes together, the blocking comes together, the defense makes plays. Something seems to happen when we’re down. It’s not explainable other than we’ve got some tough kids."

They were reduced to quivering jello at Emily Maeda’s senior night party Friday, but they quivered together. When Chad Reis popped out of a box at the end of the celebration and asked Maeda to marry him, the Wahine gasped in unison. When Maeda, their lone, beloved senior, quickly said "yes," her teammates were in tears.

"It was an awesome night to celebrate Em. I was so excited for her and Chad," said Ali Longo, the team’s rock of a libero whose face was red and wet with tears. "It was a fun night, really fun. It was nice to be able to celebrate and have her be honored the way she should be."

The night was a microcosm of this season full of surprises. Unwilling and believing she was unable to celebrate alone, Maeda asked her teammates to join. She enlisted Polynesian Cultural Center’s David Tiave — who choreographed last year’s senior dance — to help her team perform to "Waka Waka" in costume and body paint.

They had two two-hour practices and were astonishingly good — "marvelous," according to Shoji.

"I really wanted to do something special," Maeda said after, "and I was like, I can’t do this alone, so I’m so thankful the team danced with me and they were so kind to do rehearsals."

The Wahine have been problem-solvers all season. As they head into their greatest challenge, leaving their devoted fans home alone for the eighth subregional in the past nine years, their problems will multiply.

If they get past the Broncos, fifth-ranked Washington will probably be waiting in a subregional that will be shown live here by OCSports, it was announced Monday. If they can reverse the spanking the Huskies gave them in Seattle two years ago and beat a host team for the fifth time in eight tries, their reward will probably be 10th-ranked Nebraska, a three-time national champion — in Omaha.

Then, it gets really tough.

Notes

» Hawaii led the country in attendance for the 19th consecutive year, drawing 126,827 fans to 19 home matches for an average of 6,675. Since UH moved into the Stan Sheriff Center full time in 1995, it has averaged below 6,000 just once (1995).

» When UH hosted a subregional last year, for the first time since 2003, it averaged more than 8,200 fans and netted $123,425. The school kept an honorarium of $18,513 after paying off the NCAA guarantee of $104,911. UH sold out (10,300) its regional the next week.

» Former Wahine All-American Deitre Collins-Parker guided San Diego State to its first NCAA tournament since 2001 in her fourth year as coach. The Aztecs won their last 12 to go 23-7, more wins than they have had since 1995. They were co-champions of the Mountain West. Colorado State got the conference’s automatic bid because of a better head-to-head mark, but SDSU got an at-large bid and will play Saint Mary’s on Thursday at USC.