Sixth-ranked Hawaii pushed Brigham Young over the edge early last night, outlasting the Cougars in the opening set and blasting them the next two in a 25-23, 25-11, 25-10 volleyball victory.

The nonconference match was watched by 4,572 at Stan Sheriff Center (5,949 tickets issued). The Rainbow Wahine (9-1) play BYU (3-8) again tonight at 7.

Last night was the first time the Cougars were swept this season, but that wasn’t the worst of it. They are in danger of heading into their final Mountain West Conference season on a five-match free fall.

The second set was Hawaii’s most lopsided of the season, until the last. A third of its points came off aces or shanks as the BYU passing suffered a meltdown that began against Elizabeth Ka’aihue’s pesky float serves.

Like "yips" in golf, the shanks snowballed in the third set as the Cougars, picked to finish fifth in the MWC a second straight season, could not compete with a UH lineup that featured four freshmen.

BYU was beaten, by every possible definition.

"We let a few negative points on us become chained together," BYU coach Shay Goulding said. "We allowed it to snowball when one ball is not related to the next.

"When we did good things, we matched up very well. We are a very physical team. But when we make as many errors as we did, we allow good teams to have an easy night."

This was the antithesis of last Saturday’s close-to-the-134th-dig four-set win over Saint Mary’s. The Cougars started three seniors and a trio of players between 6 feet 2 and 6 feet 6, yet were out-hit .308 to .036 and out-aced 9-2.

Still, Hawaii was not happy with any phase of its game with the possible exception of Ka’aihue, who had nearly half its digs (15) and kick-started the Cougars’ pass-receive nightmare.

"We just got the job done," said UH’s Kanani Danielson, who shared match-high honors with freshman teammate Michelle Waber at 10 kills apiece. "Yeah, you look at the scores and see the depth of how much they were beaten by, but expectations on our side are to do a lot better."

UH coach Dave Shoji went as far as to say it didn’t look like the same team he coached in practice. He would like to see much more from his team tonight. BYU almost has to be better.

The Wahine need that. The Cougars’ size is something they won’t see in the Western Athletic Conference, but it will be staring down at them in the postseason. They need the practice hitting around it.

"Even on defense you see different angles," said UH defensive specialist Emily Maeda. "You have to look at a window above what you are used to because they are coming over the block."

Hawaii’s outside hitters were the highlight of a ragged opening set. Waber and Chanteal Satele had four kills apiece, while Danielson had three. More to the point, the trio hit a combined .333 to .047 for their counterparts in BYU blue. Brittany Hewitt was the only Wahine without a kill, but compensated with all three blocks, including a solo on set point.

From there, the Cougars’ poor ballhandling barely allowed Hawaii an opportunity to progress as it begins its quest for a 13th consecutive WAC championship next week.

The last team other than Hawaii to win a WAC title was BYU in 1997. That was a distant memory last night as UH ran its lead in the series to 16-5.

"I want them to come in and compete tomorrow," said Goulding of her players, who took sets off top-five opponents Nebraska and Illinois. "Be proud of their efforts and show a real dignity in their efforts. Make Hawaii earn their win or loss. Whatever the outcome is, we should make them earn it and not hand anything over.

"Hawaii has a fantastic crowd here that loves good volleyball. I’ve heard them cheer when we do good things and they cheer louder when Hawaii does good things. But they love good volleyball, so I think we’d like to come out here and show them BYU can play great volleyball."

NOTES

Cincinnati, coached by Hilo High graduate Reed Sunahara, upset fifth-ranked Illinois in five sets last night. In another upset Thursday, unranked Texas A&M swept eighth-ranked Texas. Saint Mary’s, which took a set off Hawaii last Saturday, took a set off top-ranked Stanford last night.

Hawaii opens WAC play Thursday against Utah State. Nevada comes to the Stan Sheriff Center on Friday.