Two days into Hawai'i's six-week spring volleyball training, the Rainbow Wahine blew through Wisconsin, 30-19, 30-23, 30-24, last night in an exhibition. Only five months to go before it matters.

A crowd of 3,277 showed at Stan Sheriff Center and got a bonus when the teams played two extra games because both coaches, particularly Wisconsin's Pete Waite, wanted to see more. Overtime served the Badgers well.

Wisconsin, whose starting setter broke her hand Sunday, won the night's most entertaining game, 32-30, against five UH reserves in the fourth. The Badgers began Game 5 with six starters — who played all five games — to Hawai'i's three. After a tired start, Wisconsin won 15-11, scoring four of the final five points.

"I think they just wanted to get some confidence," Shoji said. "I'm sure he wanted to see better play out of his starters."

Shoji and new associate coach Mike Sealy were surprised only at how smoothly things went so soon. The first three games were not close as Hawai'i's ball control was far superior. UH also out-blocked one of the country's best blocking teams by more than two to one (12.5 to 5.5).

"I was pleasantly surprised," said Sealy, who has been in town less than a week. "I thought the offense was very good. That's the one thing after not playing together for so long you'd expect to come down a little bit."

The Rainbow Wahine, who finished last year 27-7 and ranked ninth, got six kills in each of the first three games from freshman Jamie Houston. Her .387 percentage helped the 'Bows out-hit Wisconsin by 200 points (.324 to .123) in the best-of-five format.

Wisconsin, 26-7 and No. 10 last year, got all but six of its kills in the first three games from hitters Maria Carlini, Amy Bladow and Audra Jeffers. None hit better than .192 and the Badgers' middle was no threat — not a surprise with a backup setter.

"Probably four positions out of the six were different than we played in the fall," said Wisconsin coach Pete Waite. "So that's going to take some time."

Hawai'i took over Game 1 when All-America setter Kanoe Kamana'o served a 5-0 run to give UH a 15-9 cushion. Soon after, Tara Hittle was serving in the midst of a 6-0 Rainbow run that made it 24-14.

In between, Hittle provided comic relief by running out of her shoe during a spike approach. Unfortunately for Hawai'i, Kamana'o was setting Hittle. Hittle fell softly to the floor, followed by the ball. "I'm not sure what happened," Hittle said with a grin, "but I thought I smelled burning rubber."

She finished with a team-high 15 digs and 13 kills. The 'Bows out-dug the Badgers, 70 to 54, with sophomore Raeceen Woolford (10 digs in parts of five games) taking the early lead in the race to replace departed libero Ashley Watanabe.

"I really liked the job Raeceen did," Shoji said. "We need that position filled and right now she's stepped ahead of the field, which is something we wanted to see. She passed solid and plays good defense. She just needs to be consistent and she was tonight. Athletically, she's probably ahead of the others."

Humor in Game 2 came from Wisconsin freshman Audra Jeffers, who was invited to play on the U.S. national A2 team. She nearly whiffed a serve, coming up a few feet short of the net. Sarah Mason served the next four, with freshman Nickie Thomas stuffing two, to give the Rainbow Wahine a 9-4 advantage. Kamana'o served another 5-0 surge to make it 19-8.

For the rest of the game, the Badgers looked like they had only been together since Thursday and the 'Bows since Monday, which was all true. The level of play was far short of the teams' last meeting, which Wisconsin won, 21-19 in the fifth, at a 2004 NCAA regional.

Walk-on Rayna Kitaguchi served four straight to give the 'Bows an 8-2 advantage they used to cruise to victory in Game 3. Shoji called his first timeout of the night when Wisconsin cut a seven-point advantage to two (15-13).

"What Dave really wanted us to work on," Hittle said, "was making adjustments before he had to call a timeout and talk about it."

Waite was impressed: "That's a solid team, obviously. When you've got a setter like that to run the show it really helps. Their ball control was good in the first three games. Dave played a lot of people later on and that gave us a chance to get our act together."

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.