If it was as easy as clicking its heels three times and convincing the NCAA Women’s Volleyball Committee "There’s no place like home," Hawaii would have been opening the postseason in paradise the past seven years.

Instead, the Rainbow Wahine actually tried to earn a home match. They played well enough to get seeded (top 16) every season. Then, with a "fewest flights" edict issued after 9/11, the committee kicked them to the mainland curb.

One year it was frigid Fort Collins, Colo., and another they lost themselves in Louisville. A year ago they were "lucky" enough to draw Washington, in Washington. They played a Huskies team that shipped its three seniors to the national team soon afterward.

A few seeded teams, mostly from the West, have been shipped out every year. But only Hawaii had the distinction of being shipped out every year.

Until now.

With the help of a Pac-12 push that now gives seeded teams the right to host, the Wahine (29-1) will be home for this week’s NCAA subregional. They play Big Sky champ Northern Colorado (22-8) in Thursday’s late match. Oregon (21-9), one of 29 BCS conference teams in the 64-team tournament, takes on Mountain West winner Colorado State (23-5) at 5 p.m.

"Last year it was just depressing," UH coach Dave Shoji recalled. "It was cold and the situation just seemed so unfair. It was their hometown and gym. It was like we were wondering, ‘Why are we here?’

"Now we’re in the sunshine at home. It’s like night and day."

Being home means more than any other volleyball team can know. Hawaii has led the country in attendance, by a bunch, since moving into the Stan Sheriff Center in 1994. It is the only revenue-producing program in the sport.

At last week’s conference tournament in Las Vegas, UH was accompanied by some 1,500 fans and a pregame reception drew a standing-room-only crowd of 500-plus. It has averaged 6,497 fans at home and 5,500 tickets have already been sold for Thursday.

"They have one of the best home-court advantages of any team in intercollegiate athletics," broadcaster Beth Mowins said at Sunday’s selection show. "Not just volleyball."

But it’s more than just their faithful fans that the Wahine have been playing for all season. There are no advantages to playing on the road — "Not a thing," Shoji said — and home is where the heart is most comfortable.

"Everything," UH All-American Kanani Danielson concluded, "is better in this atmosphere."

She and her teammates can produce a long list of reasons why home matches are an advantage, particularly in the postseason and especially here. They know precisely how the ball will float, which helps passing and hitting. They can sleep in their own beds and stay in their routines. They don’t have to ask for assignments from professors and get used to yet another time zone.

They won’t be crammed into a plane for 5-plus hours and in a hotel room for hours on end. They won’t have to add 5,000 more miles, at least, to the frequent-flier accounts that already average some 40,000 miles a year.

But mostly, there truly is no place like home if you are a college volleyball player. Hawaii’s exhibition matches are better organized than most NCAA matches and no place comes close to matching its fans’ passion for the game, and their team.

The postseason will bring out their best. Coaches expect an ultra-energized crowd similar to the 9,692 that went wild at the "Hawaii Five-0" filming/Pepperdine match in September. That night was more than memorable.

"We’re hoping that in a close match that could be the difference, just the comfort level of being home," Shoji said. "We’re comfortable. It’s our arena, our house. I think it will be a very vocal crowd, not like a normal crowd. We’ve made a big enough deal about not having hosted for a while."

Notes

» A few free student tickets remain. Shoji, inspired by a similar action taken by the Stanford men’s program a few years ago, bought 100 tickets to distribute to UH students for Thursday’s match. One ticket per student is available with a valid student I.D.

» There will be a free NCAA youth volleyball clinic run in conjunction with next weekend’s Honolulu regional. It will be Dec. 10 and is open to kids ages 8-16. Participants receive sports instruction from NCAA coaches and student-athletes and get information on fitness, healthy lifestyles and sportsmanship. The clinics also feature a session for parents and guardians with information on recruiting, academic and eligibility issues. Registration is open at planningpoint.net/events/2012youthclinics. For more information, contact Shelton Tang at 348-7243 or shelton@hawaii.edu.