Despite all the problems, there were enough flashes of potential the first two nights of this volleyball season to give Hawai'i hope. Last night, however, there was nothing positive about the performance by the Rainbow Wahine.

The 10th-ranked 'Bows, in danger of dropping out of the poll for the first time in 15 years, were blown out by Oregon State, a team that went oh-for-the-Pac-10 last year. The scores were 33-31, 30-21, 30-26 on the final night of the ASICS Rainbow Wahine Invitational.

But for two points Saturday against Colorado State, Hawai'i could be 0-3 today.

"Unfortunately, the three teams coming in next week are probably better than these three," UH coach Dave Shoji said. "We've got to improve quite a bit in three, four days or the outcome is going to be the same. The coaching staff has to come up with something and the players have to buy into it. Attitudes have to be good.

"I'd like to have a set lineup. We're all over the place now," he added. "That's the reason we have inconsistency, because I pull people and change the lineup and change alignment. It might be better just to have six players, but fortunately we have talent through the squad. I've got to find a lineup and go with it."

The Rainbows were so shockingly bad they didn't even show up for the trophy presentation, leaving it to about 100 fans — from a crowd of 4,196 — to honor the giddy Beavers, the last team left in town.

Earlier, Michigan won the tournament championship by beating CSU, 25-30, 30-24, 30-25, 30-22. The Wolverines won all three matches behind freshman setter Lexi Zimmerman and middles Lyndsay Miller and Beth Karpiak, who combined to average seven kills a game and hit nearly .400.

Their libero, senior Stesha Selsky, was named Most Outstanding Player. She had nearly as many digs last night (25) as the Rainbows, who simply gave up points faster than they could score them for much of the weekend. And Oregon State, rebuilding with former Olympic coach Taras Liskevych, hardly needed help. This might have been the biggest win in the history of its program.

"You need these kind of matches to define yourself," Liskevych said. "It's very difficult to beat Hawai'i in Hawai'i, particularly 3-0. That doesn't happen very often. ... We just took it to 'em the whole time."

Hawai'i tried 13 players — adding freshman Amanda Simmons to the 12 who had given it a shot the first two nights — and was powerless to stop OSU.

"It's not what we wanted, obviously, but I know we're going to learn," captain Tara Hittle said. "I think everything happens for a reason. I think we'll take this ... it's not a good feeling, we don't want to feel like this again. I believe it showed us stuff we need to work on."

The Beavers, 3-24 last year, denied Hawai'i game point four times before stuffing Jamie Houston twice to take Game 1. It was tied 19 times, with Hawai'i blowing a 14-9 advantage early and a 29-26 lead late. It didn't have a stuff until the 53rd serve.

Then it got really bad for the 'Bows. Oregon State's offense tore through Hawai'i to pull ahead 20-14 in Game 2. UH started its eighth different lineup of the short season and played both setters, rotating right-side hitters Amber Kaufman and Jessica Keefe into the front row.

Nothing worked. The Beavers, with one senior on the roster, were better everywhere. They stacked the block against Houston and the Western Athletic Conference preseason Player of the Year hit .143, with 10 hitting errors to go with a team-high 16 kills.

The Rainbows had no options. For the third straight night, middle Juliana Sanders was their most consistent attacker, but the passing was so poor she only got a few good swings. Hawai'i was rarely in position for digs.

It started the final two games slowly and ultimately self-destructed, shanking balls, hitting out and allowing Rachel Rourke, OSU's 6-foot-5 Australian, to rip at will. She had 17 kills on .353 hitting. In a five-game win over CSU and a three-game loss to Michigan, she hit .222.

"We couldn't stop Rourke," Shoji said. "She was almost half their offense and we had no answer for her. Every time they got in a little trouble they'd set her and we couldn't do anything about it."

Oregon State scored seven of the last eight points in Game 2 when UH missed a serve, shanked two balls, hit out once and into the block three straight times. The Beavers hit 230 points higher than Hawai'i (.344 to .114), then got truly efficient to finish Game 3 at .419 — against the fourth-best blocking team in the country a year ago.

Last year was what Shoji asked his team to remember when it was over. The 'Bows started 2006 5-4, with two season-ending injuries. They were also swept at home then — three times — but that was against Florida, UCLA and Stanford, perennial top-10 teams. They went on to a regional final.

"We were pretty low last year about this time and we ended up being a pretty good team," Shoji said. "That was the message in the locker room. Things look bad but you've got a chance to do something about it."

The players did not appear all that worried. "We do have the skills," Hittle said. "I don't feel like we're playing as a team as much as we could be. It's a lot of individual effort, which is a great thing to have, but it's missing that flow, like a system."

NOTES

Ashley Fornstrom, CSU's junior setter, hit the edge of the sideline sign with her head near the end of yesterday's match. School officials said Fornstrom was "shaken up" but did not have a concussion, so she could fly home last night. Fornstrom walked off the court with the aid of two trainers.

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.