Nevada was a no-show in the showdown of WAC volleyball unbeatens.

Hawai'i, after a stumbling, humbling early season, did its own humbling last night. The 11th-ranked Rainbow Wahine ripped the Wolf Pack, 30-16, 30-7, 30-17. A Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 6,514 watched in awe as UH (11-6, 5-0 WAC) played almost flawlessly, and brought out every flaw Nevada knew it had, and a few more.

"We utterly fell apart," said Wolf Pack coach Devin Scruggs. "I don't think I've ever witnessed us being that bad. ... That was just really the ugliest thing I've ever seen."

And absolutely unexpected. Nevada (10-6, 5-1) came here without its starting setter, who has been hurt the last eight matches, but with a nine-match winning streak. It fell to Hawai'i kicking and screaming twice last year in five bitterly fought games. It was the one WAC team that showed no fear of the WAC bully, who has now won its last 111 against conference opposition.

"I'm in shock," UH coach Dave Shoji said. "The scary thing is they will be a lot better in Reno. They are a good team. I just can't believe we had this kind of match against a very good team. A lot of it was us. We played really good assignment defense and they got frustrated — hit a lot of balls out and the balls they hit in we dug."

It was 81 minutes of stunning hell for Nevada, and UH's most lopsided victory since rally scoring started in 2001.

"If you look at the scores, it looked like we were playing one of the worst teams in the country and they are not anywhere near that," UH coach Dave Shoji said. "You just have to chalk it up to one of those nights when we were very on and they were very, very off. That's what you get."

Everything the 'Bows touched turned to points. Victoria Prince, who had three of her four aces in a second game that saw UH score 20 of the last 21 points, anchored a serving game that took the Wolf Pack completely out of their offense.

The WAC's best hitting team had a negative .054 percentage. Carly Sorensen was the only Nevada hitter in positive numbers. All-WAC middle Salaia Salave'a was totally frustrated with five kills and twice as many errors. The harder she hit, the faster Kanoe Kamana'o and Ashley Watanabe dug her, so Salave'a went almost totally to her tip game, and couldn't keep it in.

Hawai'i out-hit Nevada by 500 points. Junior transfer Sarah Mason, the reigning WAC Player of the Week, went off for 18 kills without any errors and insisted the difference for her was "simply to stay patient." The Rainbows had but four errors all night. Every Nevada hitter had at least that many.

Scruggs said she wished her team had grown more frustrated and fought harder — "We have too many returnees, there was no excuse for the way we played and the lack of effort ... we looked scared" — but saw enough of Hawai'i to realize this wasn't all her team's fault.

"Hawai'i is definitely better," Scruggs said. "With Mason on the left side and all their players a year older ... (Juliana) Sanders is more mature and has gotten better. Prince is doing the same things she does well. I think they are certainly a better team than last year. I mean, look at the depth. They take (Tara) Hittle out and this athlete (Jamie Houston) who hammers the ball harder than anyone I've seen comes in."

The Wolf Pack's start was so slow it was in reverse for much of the first game. Hawai'i scored eight of the first nine points before Nevada had to take its first timeout. When it took its last, the 'Bows were up 17-6 and scoring in bunches.

Then it got really bad. Prince pummeled two aces to open the second game. When she went back to serve again, Hawai'i was up 11-6. By the time Prince was done — after another ace, more Mason and even more wild Wolf Pack hitting, it was 20-6.

Sanders hit out and Nevada celebrated a rare point by serving out. Then Kamana'o served the last nine points as the eyes of the Pack glazed over in shock.

Nevada hit negative .256 in Game 2, with Salave'a contributing six errors and no kills. Her team's seven points was the lowest total for a UH opponent since it held Boise State and SMU to six in 2002.

The Wolf Pack stayed with UH until 8-all in Game 3. Then, with Prince serving again, Hawai'i scored the next nine points to put the Pack away for good.

"I was waiting for them to start the whole night," admitted Shoji, who said again he believes his team "turned a corner" when it rallied at New Mexico State last week.

Mason agreed on both points.

"I felt like they were just going to step it up any moment," Mason said. "But some things were out of their control."

NOTES

Junior setter Kanoe Kamana'o became the fourth Rainbow Wahine to amass 4,000 career assists Friday. ... Last night's match will be rebroadcast, for free, at 1:30 p.m. today on KFVE. The Nevada match was the final pay-per-view match of the regular season.

NEVADA

G K E A Pct. BS BA D SA SE Ericson 3 5 6 26 -.038 0 1 3 0 0

MILLER 3 0 1 2 -.500 0 0 3 0 1

SIPHERD 3 2 5 12 -.250 0 0 0 0 0

SALAVE'A 3 5 10 35 -.143 0 1 6 0 1

RYAN 3 3 4 10 -.100 0 0 0 0 0

SORENSEN 3 10 5 24 .208 0 0 3 0 2

DAVIS 3 1 1 2 .000 0 0 0 0 0

HARMS 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 10 0 0

HOLDA 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 7 0 2

HENRY 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 8 0 0

TOTALS 3 26 32 111 -.054 0 2 40 0 6

HAWAI'I

G K E A Pct. BS BA D SA SE Sanders 3 5 1 14 .286 0 4 0 0 0

BOOGAARD 3 6 1 11 .455 0 2 7 0 2

HITTLE 3 3 1 11 .182 0 1 8 0 0

KAMANA'O 3 2 0 3 .667 0 0 9 0 0

PRINCE 3 6 0 12 .500 0 4 3 4 4

MASON 3 18 0 33 .545 0 4 6 0 1

HOUSTON 3 4 1 8 .375 0 1 0 0 0

WATANABE 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 11 0 1

THURLBY 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 0 0

WOOFLORD 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 0 0

TOTALS 3 44 4 92 .435 0 16 44 4 8

NEVADA (10-6, 5-1) 16 7 17

HAWAI'I (11-6, 5-0) 30 30 30

Team blocks — Nevada 1.0, Hawai'i 8.0. Assist leaders — Nevada 24 (Miller 22), Hawai'i 38 (Kamana'o 33). Time — 1:21. Att. —8,018.

Key — G: Games. K-E-A: Kills-Errors-Attempts. Pct.: Hitting percentage (Kills minus errors divided by attempts). BS: Block solo. BA: Block assist. D: Dig. SA: Ace. SE: Service error.

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.