In looking toward tonight’s Big West Conference women’s volleyball showdown at the Stan Sheriff Center you would expect Rainbow Wahine coach Robyn Ah Mow-Santos to say, “Hopefully, the fans will show up and pack the arena.”

But, in this case, it was the opposing coach, Cal Poly’s Sam Crosson, who offered this quote to the Star-Advertiser’s Cindy Luis earlier this week.

In the quarter-century life of the arena, a lot of opposing coaches have marveled at the tremendous atmosphere. They have praised the energy and knowledge of the fans there.

But few, especially when there has been a title of some sort on the line, have so boldly come out and encouraged the Rainbow Wahine faithful to turn out and “pack the arena.” A confident, open invitation from the visitors to the fans to “bring it on” as it were. A spirited declaration of unmistakable intent.

And, no, Crosson and Cal Poly don’t get a cut of the ticket sales.

Time was when the Rainbow Wahine’s home facility was viewed as an intimidating, deafening venue for volleyball visitors. They’d often stare up at the national championship banners in the rafters, smell the garlic fries, take in the buzz of the crowd and be energized for a time, until getting beaten.

Then they would trudge out, their ears still ringing, for the long plane ride home.

Especially ones who generally play in partially-full gyms such as the 3,032-seat Mott Athletics Center in San Luis Obispo. Or who had been 1-13 at the Stan Sheriff Center, like the Mustangs, not exactly a repository of a lot of fond memories.

But that has apparently changed on a couple fronts. For one, UH no longer leads the college volleyball universe in attendance, having been overtaken by Nebraska the last five seasons.

And the landscape has definitely changed for the Mustangs, who came in and finally took a match and, as it turned out, the Big West championship away from the Rainbow Wahine in the process, last year.

Now, the Mustangs (19-1, 9-0 Big West) are back, emboldened, purposeful and nationally ranked (11th) and what happens tonight will say a lot about both teams apart from the issue of who wears the regular-season crown and claims the conference’s automatic berth in the NCAA Championships.

The Rainbow Wahine (13-6, 9-1 Big West) need the victory to have any chance at reclaiming the title and making a 36th consecutive NCAA tournament appearance after dropping a four-set match to the Mustangs three weeks ago. And, even then, they may need some help.

With a Ratings Percentage Index of 75 and few notable victories on the resume, an at-large berth like last year would be out of the question.

The Mustangs, who have won 26 conference matches in a row and 18 matches overall since an early-season loss at fifth-ranked Pittsburgh, aren’t even thinking about at-large possibilities. They have bigger things in mind, targeting a Sweet 16 appearance.

To capture the Big West they are only required to win tonight and then finish out the string on back-to-back titles. A victory could very well vault them into the American Volleyball Coaches Association Top 10 next week.

But for the short-term as well as the postseason outlook, the Rainbow Wahine need to get back to making the Stan Sheriff Center a place that opponents step into with some sense of trepidation instead of a swagger.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.