LOS ANGELES — Sixth-ranked Hawai'i did not scare anyone, but it hammered when it could and hung tough when it had to last night to sweep Atlantic Sun champion Belmont, 25-19, 25-11, 25-16, and move into the second round of the NCAA Volleyball Championship.

The Rainbow Wahine, seeded seventh in the postseason, shook and served off the pesky Bruins (25-8) in a little more than an hour before about 200 at Southern California's Galen Center. In the late match, 12th-ranked USC (17-11) was outscored 15-5 at the end of the first set by 15th-ranked San Diego (23-5), but rallied for a 21-25, 25-12, 25-19, 26-24 win. The Trojans won it on their fourth try at match point.

The 'Bows play USC today, at 4 p.m. Hawai'i time, in a rematch of the 2006 regional semifinal won by UH in an upset. The winner advances to next week's Fort Collins, Colo., regional.

Hawai'i coach Dave Shoji turned 62 Thursday and won the 982nd match of his 34-year career last night. Belmont coach Deane Webb told him before the match he was honored to coach against him. When it was over, Webb counted the ways his young team, in its second NCAA Tournament, had been beaten.

"It's mostly the size difference," Webb said. "We're similar in that we're both pretty aggressive. They are aggressive at a little bit different level because of what they play against on a daily basis. I'm really pleased with the effort our team showed. Knowing we give up inches, sometimes several, at every position and we give up experience on all sides, including the coaches ... Dave has been coaching since I was 3. I have the utmost respect for what he has done there. It's an amazing experience you now enjoy on a daily basis with the fan support."

The Bruins, with 11 underclassmen, saw their finest season end quickly after a first set that was as competitive as it was sloppy.

With its passers struggling to adjust to Belmont's big serves — the Bruins are ranked fourth nationally in serving, averaging more than two aces a set — Hawai'i's middle did not have a kill until the 39th serve. Only a strong finishing kick dragged UH's hitting percentage up to .200, despite Aneli Cubi-Otineru going 4-for-4.

"I think it was a little bit of nerves, we never really looked comfortable," Shoji said. "They served tough, which threw us off a little. They did some things we just couldn't defend very well, so at times we looked kind of ragged, but give Belmont credit for running a pretty diversified attack."

Two-time WAC Player of the Year Jamie Houston blasted set point to bring her attack percentage up to zero (three kills, three errors, 11 swings). In fairness to Houston, that final set was the first really good one she saw, the rest coming off wild passes and against two blockers. The player Webb remembered from club ball — Huntsville, Ala., is some 100 miles from Belmont's Nashville, Tenn., campus — would finish with seven kills and six errors.

In contrast, the Bruins dinked, dumped and tipped to stay close. They called time down 19-13 and scored four straight, including their only kill of the set that was actually hit hard — by freshman setter Channing Salava. She was Belmont's best hitter in the first set, going 4-for-5.

Unfortunately, her teammates hit .033 and were not able, or willing, to hit hard. The 'Bows regrouped and scored six of the last eight, digging the rest of the Bruins' dinks behind senior libero Tara Hittle.

"They are an incredibly sound defensive team," Salava said. "We're used to playing very scrappy teams, but Hawai'i is scrappy on a different level. They just did not give up. That's something I admire in a team — sticking together. That's something our team aims to be. We strive for that scrappiness."

Hawai'i kept the ball in play long enough to let the Bruins make mistakes. Of its first 19 points, 13 came on Belmont serving, hitting and blocking errors.

"We're a very nice team, generous," Webb joked. "But a little nicer than I would have liked."

The Rainbows would need no more help. Salava's offense grounded to a halt as the 'Bows' servers began to pick Belmont apart. The second set started with the 'Bows scoring the first three and Belmont five straight. Then Kaufman served 10 in a row, acing the Bruins four times.

"We served very tough," Shoji said. "We didn't allow them to run enough of an offense to really stay in the match."

Hawai'i would finish with 10 aces, to Belmont's one — with 11 service errors. "One of the challenging things today is that the parts of our game we normally do well — serving and passing — we did not do well," Webb said. "Give Hawai'i credit for that. They served well. They are certainly better in person than they were on tape."

Hawai'i middles Kaufman and Nickie Thomas, who was in on five of the team's seven stuffs, became more than decoys after the first set. Hawai'i took control despite its offense running in fits and starts. It never found a real rhythm, hitting .253, but it was remarkably balanced with all five hitters getting at least five kills. Freshman Kanani Danielson had a match-high eight on .368 hitting and Thomas hit .625.

But really, it was Hawai'i's defense and serving that did the Bruins in. Cat Mundy, their senior all-conference hitter, was suffocated into negative .074 hitting. Freshman Maggie Johnson, the other left side, hit negative .357 with just one kill.

"We thought No. 7 (Mundy) was the better of the two," Shoji said. "We tried to make sure we had two up on her. We bothered her early and did a nice job on her. When their passing is not great she is not the type of hitter to elevate and go over you. They need a little advantage on the block or it's just not there for them."

It was not. For all their foibles, the Rainbow Wahine were never in real danger last night.

"We made some unforced errors, which were not typical," Shoji said. "But at this point all we want to do is advance. We can't look back. I'm not worried about percentages or numbers. It we hit negative tomorrow and advance, I'll be the happiest coach around."

NOTES

Hawai'i is 33-3 in subregionals, its only losses coming in 1984 — after it won NCAA titles the previous two years, 1997 and last year, when Middle Tennessee became the first team to beat UH in a second-round match. MTSU won its first-round match last night in five sets, over Miami (Ohio). It will play 10th-seeded Purdue tonight in Indiana, with the winner meeting the Hawai'i-USC winner Friday.

New Mexico State, which shared the Western Athletic Conference regular-season title with the Rainbows, finally won an NCAA Tournament match last night, defeating Saint Mary's.

Last season the West Coast Conference had three teams in the NCAA Tournament, and went 0-3. This season the WCC got five teams and went 1-4 in the first round, with fifth-place Santa Clara the only winner.

Jamie Houston had a career-high 35 kills when Hawai'i upset USC in the 2006 regional semifinal and doesn't remember much more about it: "I don't know what was going on," Houston said. "Everything just went right. It was probably God just playing through me. It had to be."