After having holes torn in its passing all night Wednesday, eighth-ranked Hawaii zeroed in on New Mexico State’s passers in the decisive set to win its Western Athletic Conference volleyball showdown, 17-25, 25-21, 25-20, 25-27, 15-5.

The 2 1⁄2-hour match came on the third anniversary of the Rainbow Wahine’s last regular-season WAC loss, when New Mexico State swept UH in the Stan Sheriff Center.

This time, before 3,166 at the Pan Am Center in Las Cruces, N.M., the Wahine (16-1, 6-0 WAC) extended their NCAA-best conference winning streak to 47 and moved into first alone.

But not without having their passing poked, prodded and pounded before a national TV audience. Aggies servers found freshmen Jane Croson and Lizzie Blake all night, and often found their passing wanting.

Hawaii fought back, behind 16 blocks, senior All-American Kanani Danielson (22 kills) and, ultimately, Croson (17 kills) and Blake (18 digs), who refused to back down.

In the fifth set, setter Mita Uiato served 10 straight points to blow it open. She had two aces, while Danielson, Emily Hartong and Kaela Goodman took over the net against suddenly poor-passing New Mexico State.

"They kind of broke down," UH coach Dave Shoji said of the 16-5 Aggies, who fell to 5-1 in the WAC. "We knew what they were going to do and finally we blocked what we were supposed to block. We had some good matchups in the match, and some not so good. In the fifth game … it just worked."

New Mexico State coach Mike Jordan was happy to be in position to win, but totally frustrated at the end.

"I’m disappointed at our lack of execution in Set 5, but Hawaii made some plays too, it wasn’t a total collapse on our part," Jordan said. "We took some bad swings and made some poor passes."

New Mexico State scored six of the first seven points and passed too well for Hawaii to catch up in the opening set. The Wahine cut their deficit to 17-16, but the Aggies scored eight of the last nine.

Freshman Meredith Hays, who finished with 22 kills, buried her seventh at set point. UH, shanking passes consistently, had eight kills total.

Hawaii’s rally began with its block and Danielson, who didn’t get a good swing in the opening set, but hit .576, with 21 of her kills, in the final four.

In contrast, Hays had four kills and six errors in the second as UH stuffed five balls, served four aces and scored seven of the last 10.

That quieted the crowd. It went silent when the Wahine scored five straight on Croson’s serve to take control of Set 3.

Hawaii stifled two set points in the fourth before falling when Croson’s attack was called long on an overrule after the line judge called a touch. Fifteen minutes later, it was over.

"Everybody we tried did a nice job," Shoji said. "Kaela really did a good job as a blocking specialist, Chanteal (Satele) was good offensively, (Emily) Maeda helped."

Hawaii plays at Louisiana Tech (9-12, 0-5 WAC) on Friday at 2 p.m. The match will be broadcast live on 1420-AM.