LOS ANGELES — Kanani Danielson rose above New Mexico and any perception of a balanced Hawai'i attack last night, taking the third-ranked Rainbow Wahine with her in the first round of the NCAA Volleyball Championship.

The University of Hawai'i sophomore blasted 17 kills from nearly that many angles as the Rainbows won, 25-22, 25-16, 25-21, at Southern California's Galen Center.

The 'Bows (29-2) will go for their 26th consecutive win, and a place in next week's Stanford regional, tonight at 5 p.m. HST. They play 15th-ranked USC (22-9), which lost the first seven points and trailed in every set before sweeping Oklahoma, 25-21, 26-24, 25-20.

Hawai'i has reached 10 of the last 11 regionals, and ended two of the Trojans' last three seasons. Tonight's winner takes on fifth-seeded Illinois (26-5) in the Sweet 16.

The Rainbows, seeded 12th in the national tournament, terminated the Lobos' dream season last night. New Mexico (20-10) was making its first NCAA appearance in 15 years after earning an at-large bid as the Mountain West's third-place team.

"I thought the key to the match was us staying with New Mexico when they started out very strong," UH coach Dave Shoji said. "We hung in there with them and weathered the storm and managed to pull out Game 1. Then it seemed to get easier except they had a few runs against us in Game 3. Other than that, we played well."

The Lobos stayed with Hawai'i kill for kill, with few errors in between, in the opening set. The teams were never more than three points apart and there were 10 ties, the last at 22.

Stephanie Ferrell's sixth kill put Hawai'i ahead before New Mexico's third hitting error gave UH set point. After a timeout, Danielson ended it with her seventh kill.

She hit .400 in the set and was just getting started. New Mexico coach Jeff Nelson called her a "one-person wrecking crew" for a Rainbow Wahine team that has been nearly as balanced as the Lobos all season.

"Danielson is fantastic and really took it to us tonight," Nelson said. "She got a ton of sets, 40 sets, which is double what anyone else had. Even when we were committing and moving around on her we couldn't stop her. She's a great player."

Not surprisingly, Stephanie Brandt was serving at the end of the opening set. That rotation, with Danielson, setter Dani Mafua and freshman middle Brittany Hewitt in the front row was Hawai'i's most effective all night.

"We did score a lot of points with Brandt in there," Shoji said. "For one thing, she brings a lot of energy and defense. And her serve is very good, it forces the other team to usually go high."

Ferrell, another UH sophomore, hit .625 in the opener, and .421 for the night with 11 kills. It was her best match since September. Not coincidentally, she was fighting for her starting spot in practice this week.

In contrast, senior Aneli Cubi-Otineru struggled to get seven kills — five in the final set — and took a night off from her jump serve to save her legs.

The Rainbows needed her late kills when New Mexico rallied from a 16-10 deficit to tie the final set at 17, forcing Hawai'i to call its first two timeouts of the match. UH had six hitting errors at that point — as many as it had the first two sets combined.

Cubi-Otineru's last kill and one of Danielson's three blocks put the 'Bows back ahead. Amber Kaufman's eighth kill finally ended it after 1 hour and 28 minutes.

In between, Hawai'i's defense silenced the Lobos' offense. After hitting .303 in the first set, they hit a combined .078 in the last two.

"I believe it was just us following our assignments," Danielson said. "They were hitting great. We weren't stuff-blocking a lot. We just followed assignments, trying to either channel (the spike) or take the block and it came out successful for us."

Hewitt set the tone early in Set 2, stuffing Lobos for four of Hawai'i's first five points, with two assists from Ferrell. The Rainbow Wahine scored 12 of the final 16 points in that set, with Danielson drilling seven more kills. Ferrell, Hewitt and Kaufman combined for nine kills and hit .500.

For the night, Hawai'i hit .340 — nearly 200 points higher than UNM — and out-dug the Lobos 49-30, with libero Liz Ka'aihue going for 15.

Nelson said two things were not apparent when watching tape of UH before the match — Danielson's range and Mafua's "great release."

"She takes the ball high and it's a really quick release," he said. "Our middles, they really had to pay attention to that to close blocks and do what they needed to do."

Ultimately, the UNM blockers could not do what they needed to do, particulary against Danielson, who hit balls inside the 10-foot line, tipped deep, crushed cross-court and went down the line relentlessly.

The rest of the Rainbows just followed her lead.

"Our start was pretty bad," Brandt said. "Game 1 was tense for us on the court. But after we pushed through it and people really started paying attention and focusing on what they were supposed to do, it came a lot easier, a lot more natural. The vibe on the court was more, 'OK, if you mess up you can just keep going.' We stuck together and battled through it. That was the best part."