In Hawaii’s version of Opening Night Lite, the fifth-ranked Rainbow Wahine started fast and staggered again last night, but this time still managed to sweep past Kansas State, 25-16, 25-23, 25-20.

Hawaii plays 16th-ranked UCLA for the championship of the Chevron Rainbow Wahine Volleyball Invitational today at 5 p.m. Winless San Diego and K-State meet at 3 p.m.

After an up-and-down-and-up 2 hours and 22 minutes against the 22nd-ranked Toreros on Friday, the Wahine got a breath of fresh air and a breather from their freshmen in a second-set rally last night. They needed all that, and their veterans in a third set full of new faces.

By the end, a Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 4,616 (6,173 tickets issued) had seen 13 UH players, some good volleyball, some bad volleyball and pretty much everything in between. Sophomore Emily Maeda got her first start for UH and freshmen Kristiana Tuaniga and Kaela Goodman saw their first action. Freshmen Michelle Waber and Emily Hartong started again, and had their moments good and bad.

UH All-American Kanani Danielson carried the brunt of the offense with 17 kills — four fewer than the entire Kansas State team, but eight more than any of her teammates.

"I don’t really know what to expect out of our team," UH coach Dave Shoji said. "Right now we have Kanani offensively. Last night we had a pretty good opposite (Chanteal Satele), tonight we didn’t. I think it’s going to be like this pretty much every night, where we could be pretty one-sided on the stat sheet but we need to spread some kills out throughout the lineup."

Danielson and senior libero Elizabeth Ka’aihue, who had a match-high 16 digs, gave their team a ‘6’ on a scale of 10 for the first two nights.

"We’re a good team, we’ve got a lot of good girls, we’re talented," Ka’aihue said. "We just have to figure out the day-in, day-out … the little things like finding a flow."

As well as UCLA played last night, it probably needs to happen tonight for UH to remain unbeaten.

"If we do what we did tonight," Danielson said, "there’s the potential we could go to five and we don’t know the outcome of that. The fifth is so short of a game one little bad pass can be a game-ender."

The Wildcats, who have 10 freshmen on their roster, were not as much of a challenge. They never found a rhythm offensively, with a hitting percentage in positive numbers only in the final set. They were more effective defensively, collecting 13 blocks. Freshman Kaitlynn Pelger was in on 10 to tie a school record.

K-State is coming off a rare losing season (12-18). Since Suzie Fritz started coaching in 2001, that has happened just one other time (2006). The next year the Wildcats won 23 matches and wound up in the NCAA tournament, something they have accomplished seven times under Fritz’s guidance.

Hawaii is coming off a final-four appearance, and trying to plug holes on the left, right and middle. The inconsistency so far isn’t surprising. Much of the reason the Wahine are 2-0 is defense.

"What they do really well is they extend rallies," Fritz said. "They don’t hurt themselves too much and I think as the season goes on they will hurt themselves less. They make you play, don’t give you points. That’s what makes them really good.

"The other thing they’re doing is they’ve got a lot of people involved. I think they’re going to be really, really good this year."

The Wahine were really, really good again in the opening set last night. They stuffed the K-State offense, allowing just five kills, while Danielson was a flawless 6-for-12.

But, like Friday, the dominance died quickly. Hawaii fell into a 6-12 hole and turned to an all-freshmen front row, and backup freshman setter, to dig out of it. With Mita Uiato serving and setting, and Waber, Goodman and Hartong at the net, the Rainbows rallied.

The freshmen and a flurry of K-State hitting errors provided six straight UH points to tie it. The Wildcats pulled ahead 18-14. This time Brittany Hewitt and Satele, the blocking terrors of opening night, anchored a front row that helped Dani Mafua serve four in a row.

The freshmen subbed back in to finish, with Uiato in the back row and Goodman going into the front for Mafua, giving UH all three hitting options at the net.

In the early match, 16th-ranked UCLA swept San Diego, 25-14, 25-19, 25-21. The Bruins out-hit the Toreros .291-.134 as USD had just one block. UCLA senior Dicey McGraw had a match-high 11 kills.