Third-ranked Hawaii and top-ranked Southern California have been playing volleyball survival showdowns for generations. The series goes back to before Rainbow Wahine senior Chanteal Satele’s mother, Lee Ann, played for UH in the 1981 and ’82 postseasons.

The teams traded NCAA Championship knockouts those years. USC won the inaugural NCAA title a week after upsetting top-ranked Hawaii in a 1981 regional. The Wahine got their revenge 53 weeks later, rallying from two sets down to beat the Trojans in the NCAA final.

Now the Wahine have ended USC’s season three of the past five years, with the Trojans reaching the final four the other two seasons (2007 and 2010). Tonight they play again in a Honolulu Regional semifinal that is just the latest in one of the game’s greatest rivalries.

"I’m not sure why we always end up in their bracket," UH coach Dave Shoji said. "I don’t think it’s a conscious effort by the committee. It just falls into place numbers-wise I guess. We’d rather see someone else, but unfortunately they’re with us again."

Southern California coach Mick Haley attributes the teams’ postseason collisions mostly to geography. The teams also share a bond that goes back nearly a decade, when Satele and Kanani Danielson met USC setter Kendall Bateman playing youth volleyball. The players and their families have become close.

"My mom is part Hawaiian so it’s just that big Hawaii family thing," Bateman shrugs. "They’re all friendly."

USC has six national titles, the last in 2003 and the first when it beat UH in the 1977 finals. That was the beginning of the teams’ series, which UH now leads 22-17.

Hawaii has four national titles, the last 24 years ago. It is one of two non-BCS conference schools — the other being Long Beach State — to win an NCAA championship.

The two teams are a combined 136-49 in the NCAA tournament. In contrast, 18th-ranked Pepperdine and unranked Kansas State, who play in tonight’s first match at 5 p.m., are 30-32.

Five years ago, in the last regional played here, the Wahine beat the Trojans in five. Now USC is back with a trio of All-Americans in seniors Alex Jupiter, Lauren Williams and Bateman. Hawaii saw them as freshmen in a 2008 Los Angeles subregional, and stomped them. The next season — same place, same time — the Wahine barely got away with a win.

Last year, USC was here in the preseason and won in five sets with Falyn Fonoimoana, who would go on to earn Pac-10 and Pacific Region freshman of the year. She did not qualify to play for the Trojans this semester and is now enrolled at UH trying to regain eligibility.

That was a rare "meaningless" match between the teams. Tonight, the loser goes home for good again.

"They know us as well as we know them," Shoji said. "I’ve seen those players evolve since 2008, all three of them. Jupiter, Williams and Bateman were all just puppies in 2008. The first year, to be honest, they were not very good, that’s one of the reasons we won. But they are very, very good now."

And very, very tall. The smallest Trojan attacker is 6-foot-2 junior Katie Fuller, who gave UH all kinds of problems last year. Jupiter gives everybody problems and Williams, at 6-4, has had huge numbers against Hawaii.

"Those three people had fantastic nights against us a year ago," Shoji said. "We’ve got to find a way to slow one or all of them down. Otherwise, it’s going to be a long night."

But Shoji is also optimistic. "One of the things I’ve taken from last year’s match is we’re way better," he said. "We have a lot more weapons than we had a year and four months ago. I think they’re way better too, but I know we’re much better, so that gives me confidence we can win this match."

Haley, conscious of the Wahine’s 26-match winning streak, sees Shoji’s point.

"Hawaii is 31-1," Haley said. "It’s like getting 30 kills. I don’t care if there’s nobody on the other side. If you get 30 balls over the net on the floor it’s pretty hard to do even in practice. They have a good record. They’ve handled their schedule well, played a formidable early schedule, losing only to UCLA. We thought the Bruins were one of the top four teams in the country. We have a lot of respect for that. And they have Danielson, who has proven to be a player who can carry them night in and night out. That’s very special."

But Haley is also optimistic. Three All-American seniors will do that to a coach.

"Dave has done a good job," Haley said. "He’s basically got a very young team. He’s got freshmen and sophomores out there playing. That’s always scary. When you’ve got freshmen and sophomores and put a packed house out there you don’t know how they’re going to perform. Two seniors is good, but three or four is what everybody looks for to have a chance to win the national championship."

Tonight’s winners play Saturday at 7 p.m. The winner of that advances to the final four, next Thursday and Saturday at the Alamodome in San Antonio.

The last of the regional’s two-night ticket packages sold out Thursday, but UH said about 100 single-night tickets will be on sale today starting at 9 a.m. The Wahine have not sold out the Stan Sheriff Center (10,300 capacity) since senior night 2003.