This week’s inaugural NCAA women’s volleyball power rating probably went over big the moment it was released in Indianapolis. The reaction grew more subdued as news headed West.

Hawaii (19-1), which takes a 14-match winning streak into tonight’s Western Athletic Conference match against Utah State, is No. 8 in the NCAA RPI. It follows Illinois, Nebraska, Iowa State, Minnesota, Northern Iowa and Florida State.

Postseason brackets are based on that RPI, which now changes weekly. The Rainbow Wahine could have a shot at playing an NCAA subregional in the Stan Sheriff Center (Dec. 1-2) for the first time since 2003.

Don’t start looking for tickets yet, even though a new NCAA regulation gives the 16 seeded teams the option of hosting first and second rounds.

Even if Hawaii wins all its matches between now and the beginning of December, its RPI will fall because WAC opponents rate so low. It is so bad coaches wondered, semi-seriously, if UH would be better forfeiting to Louisiana Tech, which has an RPI of 257 and a nonconference schedule loaded with teams even worse.

"Every time we play a WAC match our RPI goes down," UH coach Dave Shoji says. "Beating Notre Dame (No. 54) allows us to tread water and be about the same, but when we play LaTech it drags us down. Fresno State (159), Nevada (240) and San Jose (190) all drag us down.

"But we’ve known that."

It might remain a problem next year when the Wahine move to the Big West. That conference barely has a team in the top 60 (Long Beach State at No. 59), but it does have five teams in the Top 100. New Mexico State (51) is the only other WAC team that high.

Most striking about the first RPI was the lack of Pac-12 teams up high. Five are ranked in the top seven of the AVCA Coaches Top 25. Stanford, Southern Cal and UCLA top the RPI at 9, 10 and 12. California, ranked second by the coaches, is 27th. Washington, the team that ended Hawaii’s season last year in the NCAA’s second round, is 33rd.

"Those are not a surprise because people know Cal and Washington played soft (preseason) schedules," Shoji says. "But they have really skewed this RPI in the wrong way. You know that both of those are very, very good teams with final-four capabilities, yet they are ranked 27th and 33rd. That’s just upsetting because it’s going to happen again this year — either one of those teams are prime candidates to be our opponents in the second round."

The Pac-12 teams can’t help but move up now that they are playing each other. The RPI is based on your opponents, and your opponents’ opponents. It can make for some cheers you never thought you’d hear.

Hawaii is pulling hard for Pepperdine (17), Cincinnati (28), Ohio State (43) and Wichita State (47) to finish fast because it beat all those teams the first month.

New Mexico State coach Mike Jordan, whose team beat rival New Mexico (96) for the first time in three years, has become "the biggest Lobo backer you have ever seen."