As Hawai'i gave up points in bunches in the packed Las Cruces High School gym a month ago, New Mexico State senior Alice Borden recalled how close her team had come to beating the 'Bows before, only to let the volleyball win of a lifetime slip away when UH refused to fold. Welcome to our world, Borden couldn't help but think.

"You think that for a second," Borden admitted. "You know you are in that position to be able to beat a great team and wonder what are they thinking right now?"

The Aggies spiked Hawai'i's astonishing Western Athletic Conference winning streak at an NCAA-record 132 matches over eight years. Now the rematch is days away.

Right now, the 14th-ranked Rainbow Wahine are thinking about Louisiana Tech, the winless WAC team they play tonight at 6:30 in the Stan Sheriff Center. But 20th-ranked NMSU has been on their minds for a month, simmering as Sunday's 5 p.m. Senior Night got closer.

"This team ...," UH co-captain Cayley Thurlby said, groping for the depth of her disgust with the loss, "when we think of New Mexico State we just get this growl, this scowl."

When it was over, UH coach Dave Shoji was adamant about how his team had "given it away." The Aggies scored the final five points of Game 2 and last eight of Game 4 before winning 15-13 in the fifth.

"We were in position twice and couldn't close it out," Shoji said. "That's disappointing. We had too many unforced errors mainly in the passing area. Those are points the other team is not really earning. They're not digging you or blocking you or putting the ball on the floor. We basically handed over points and we handed them over in streaks."

Thurlby called it the "disease of me," as in players thinking, "What am I doing wrong, not what can I do to make the team better. If we get out of the 'me' mode we can be successful."

New Mexico State coach Mike Jordan talked about the 'Bows' "ballhandling issues" after his team reeled off 13 aces that night. Then he analyzed his team, which was out-hit by 50 points, out-blocked 17 to 8 and had a starter (Tanya Allen) hit for negative numbers.

"As far as that match goes, I don't know if either one of us played our best volleyball," Jordan said. "The euphoria of winning wore off when I started looking at the match tape."

Both teams exposed weaknesses that night. Neither has lost since. The Aggies have not dropped a game, sweeping 26 straight. They are on the brink of their first 30-win season since ... well, leaving the Sun Belt Conference two years ago for the WAC's tougher competition.

Sunday's winner has the inside track on the regular-season title and WAC Tournament top seed two weeks from now in Reno, Nev. — site of the Aggies' lone loss.

The hypothetical betting line in Nevada should be fairly even. The teams are 1-2 in every WAC statistic but aces, where NMSU is first and Hawai'i sixth, and digs, where UH is first and NMSU fifth.

Individually, it also appears a wash. Rainbows and Aggies took nine of the 12 slots on the all-WAC preseason team. Hawai'i's Jamie Houston is fifth nationally in kills (5.45 per game) and Kanoe Kamana'o sixth in assists (13.72). Aggie middles Amber Simpson (.410) and Kim Oguh (.400) are 11th and 17th in hitting. NMSU is fifth as a team (.291) and 12th in aces (2.33).

Simpson and Oguh are 2-3 in WAC blocks, sandwiched by UH middles Kari Gregory and Juliana Sanders at 1-4. UH's Sarah Mason leads the WAC in aces (0.58), with NMSU seniors Borden and Jackie Choi Nos. 2 and 3.

The upset gave NMSU a boost of adrenaline and confidence, to say nothing of a win that will do more for its NCAA Tournament hopes than the other 28 combined. If it happens again here, before Hawai'i's monstrous and adoring crowds, both teams go into the WAC Tournament with much on their minds.

Jordan's most vivid memory of that historic night gives him a very good feeling.

"I remember that, outside of Game 1, I never got a sense of panic from my team," he recalled. "I felt real comfortable saying things like, 'If you make these adjustments you can get back in the game.' I saw that belief. Sometimes kids look down on the floor or you get a blank stare. When I was saying that, they were looking in my eyes and I could tell they believed that, too."

After eight years of utter domination, they made the Rainbow Wahine believers, too.

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.