Saint Mary’s took a rare set off eighth-ranked Hawaii Saturday. It served as a slap in the face for the Rainbow Wahine, who roared back for a 25-20, 22-25, 25-19, 25-19 volleyball victory.

The win sends UH and sixth-ranked Stanford into today’s 6 p.m. Chevron Rainbow Wahine Invitational final unbeaten.

A Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 4,701 watched with increasing anxiety Saturday as the Gaels evened it at a set apiece against UH.

“We knew they were going to play better,” UH coach Dave Shoji said. “We knew they were going to put pressure on us. We knew they were capable of beating us. So we had a little mini-crisis early in the year, which is good for us. We needed to have some adversity and see how we responded.”

With the match tied, the Cardinal, who stuffed Saint Mary’s on Friday and Albany on Saturday, left the building.

The injury-riddled Gaels, who didn’t even bring all-conference setter Missy White, had found their offense behind freshman setter Dallas Dodd.

“There is a lot of newness out there,” said Saint Mary’s coach Rob Browning. “That first match they didn’t even know what rotation they were supposed to be in sometimes. Stanford played great against us and we didn’t have a scouting report against them. We got to watch Hawaii play, even though it wasn’t a lot. We had a good idea of what we wanted to do.”

Emily Hartong, who finished with a match-high 17 kills, had just one in the opening set and all of Hawaii’s attack errors. Her teammates hit better than .500 to pull away from the Gaels, who hit just .179.

In the second set, everything changed.

Hartong buried the first four sets she saw and had eight kills, but the rest of the Wahine managed just six. Saint Mary’s never trailed, hitting 70 points better than it had the night before, and 80 points more than it would the rest of the night.

More to the point — and points — the Gaels’ serving began poking holes in Hawaii’s passing, and keeping the ball away from libero Ali Longo. Saint Mary’s took a set off UH for only the second time in eight meetings, and made it look relatively easy.

The Wahine picked themselves up before Shoji even got to the locker room during the break.

“We were all really fired up, we really wanted to get it together,” said freshman Jade Vorster, who is hitting .667 in her collegiate career after going an error-free 12-for-16 Saturday. “We definitely thought it was too quiet that second game.”

They rallied behind Jane Croson, who rallied herself after a ragged second set, and a revived passing game. With the third tied at 6, Croson reeled off four kills and two stuffs in an 8-3 Hawaii surge.

The Gaels could not cut their deficit below four. The Wahine had six stuffs in the set, with Vorster getting two solos and putting all four of her swings into the floor. She kept it going in the fourth.

“I’m pretty confident in my blocking and Dave’s known that a while,” Vorster said. “But I have to be good at both things. That’s going to make the team better, open up Emily and Jane. I’m just trying to get up every time so I’m an option.”

Kalei Adolpho added nine kills and she, Vorster and Hartong had six stuffs apiece as the Wahine outblocked Saint Mary’s 17.5-7.5.

The new middles were the difference in the final set, with four kills each. Hawaii scored the first five points, but the Gaels clawed back to tie it at 17. Adolpho took over, scoring four of the Wahine’s last seven points.

“Hawaii is just better than us,” Browning said. “I thought we did an OK job against Croson and Hartong, considering how good they are and how important they are to the offense. But their middles were very efficient against us and we didn’t do a good job against them.”

That gave Shoji a sense of relief, and satisfaction.

“I liked the fact that Saint Mary’s played better tonight and forced us to play better,” he said. “I liked the way we responded after Set 2. Our middles had a great night. Having no errors and … our lefts just hung in there and got enough kills.”

Transfer Kristina Graven had 15 kills and 16 digs, and was the only Gaels attacker to hit over .200.

Saint Mary’s was picked to win the West Coast Conference this season, with 19th-ranked San Diego.

No. 6 Stanford 3, Albany 0

Freshman hitter Jordan Burgess put down 14 kills, hitting .600, as the Cardinal swept the Great Danes 25-14, 25-7, 25-15 in 78 minutes. Stanford went on several huge scoring runs, including a 13-0 finish that ended Set 2.

Sara Pope, Traci Vandegrift and Dunja Prgomet all had six kills for the Great Danes.