LOS ANGELES — Sixth-ranked Hawai'i roared into the regionals of the NCAA Women's Volleyball Championship last night with a sweep of 12th-ranked Southern California that was surprising only in its utter domination.

The Rainbow Wahine took over the Trojans' homecourt in a 25-21, 25-18, 25-22 win that was so thorough it left their coach of 34 years — and four national championships — in awe.

"This is a monumental win for our program," Dave Shoji said. "Beating a Pac-10 team as good as USC at USC ... I felt like the draw was not particularly good for any teams in this subregional, but we didn't complain about it. We just knew what we had to do. I give my staff and players all the credit tonight. They played an unbelievable match. Everything we asked them to do they did. We got some big-time performances. Just about everybody came up big tonight so it was a total team victory. I'm just so proud of my team and staff.

"We've got bigger and better things next week, but we're really going to enjoy this win."

USC, a six-time national champion that has been to four final fours in the past six years, never knew what hit it. From the moment the Trojans took to Galen Court, and were greeted by an astonishingly green crowd that numbered 1,019, they were out of their element.

"I'm disappointed," USC coach Mick Haley said. "I thought we under-achieved. We started to play a little better in the third set, but we don't defend as well as we need to and when we don't defend we can't win.

"I wish Hawai'i a lot of luck. They played hard, played with heart and I think they have a good chance in this regional. We felt we could win the regional if we got there."

The Rainbow Wahine, seeded seventh in the postseason, play 10th-seeded Purdue (26-8) Friday in Fort Collins, Colo. The Boilermakers beat Middle Tennessee in five last night in West Lafayette, Ind. MTSU ended the 'Bows' season last year in the second round. Second-seeded Stanford (28-3) and 15th-seeded Florida (27-3) meet in the other regional semifinal.

It will be Hawai'i's 10th regional in 11 years. Its 17th straight victory earned the 'Bows (30-3) their 17th 30-win season. Few have been sweeter.

Led by Jamie Houston's 17 kills, freshman Kanani Danielson's dazzling double-double (11 kills, 15 digs) and Amber Kaufman's rally-killing 10 kills from high altitude, the Trojans could never slow the Rainbow express. Houston and Danielson both hit over .300 from outside, and Kaufman was a spectacular .714 out of the middle as sophomore setter Dani Mafua got the passing she needed to terrorize the Trojans.

"Every set I told the girls on the court we've got to establish it, build momentum early," Mafua said. "We did a good job building cushions so we could run stuff. It was evident they didn't know what to expect. We were playing games with them, like a chess game."

The 'Bows broke to a 13-10 advantage in the first set on Mafua's ace. They kept their edge behind defense — they out-dug USC 46-32 — and the hitting of Danielson and Houston. Then Aneli Cubi-Otineru was stuffed three straight times by the big Trojan block, the last putting USC ahead 21-20.

Hawai'i called time, tied it on Houston's fifth kill and went ahead when the Trojans touched the net. Houston got her sixth kill and Kimmee Roleder — one of four sophomores who started for USC — launched an overset out of bounds. It ended on Jessica Gysin's third hitting error.

UH scored its final five on Kaufman's serve. The Trojans hit .105 for the set, with Roleder and Gysin — the Trojans' only all-Pac-10 selection — held to no kills and negative-.333 hitting.

Roleder would never recover, going zero-for-the-match. Gysin warmed up as the night went on, but freshman Alex Jupiter (12 kills) was the only USC attacker the Rainbows could not rattle. The 'Bows, who gave up an average of four inches across the net, actually out-stuffed Southern Cal (5.5-5). But it was their floor defense behind the block that took the fight out of Tommy Trojan, who was actually at the Rose Bowl, watching USC beat UCLA in football.

"The best thing we can do against a team like that is play great block defense and that's what we did," Danielson said. "It's amazing how when we stay together as a team a lot of things work out. That's what helped me. I know if they are doing their best that means I have to do my best as well. I just had a wonderful time playing with my teammates."

Houston and Danielson again anchored the Hawai'i offense in the second set, with Kaufman creating just enough of a threat in the middle to split the Trojans' block wide open. The Rainbows took off from a 4-all tie and USC couldn't catch them as it struggled to put a ball down. USC had burned both timeouts with Hawai'i ahead 15-11.

They scored the next two points, Danielson's first error of the match making it 15-13. But the 'Bows scored nine of the next 12 to run away and Cubi-Otineru got set point.

The final set was tied 12 times before Hawai'i went ahead for good, 19-17, on a Kaufman kill and USC violation. Three Houston kills — one off a Trojan head — put the 'Bows at match point and Danielson buried it, raising her arms in elation.

"We made errors at the wrong time at the end," Gysin said. "We were not passing well all match, we couldn't run our system, produce offense. I blame myself for that. We didn't get anything going. We had a shot at the end of the third game and kind of let it slip away."

The Rainbow Wahine never let anything get away on a shockingly short night where they fulfilled much of their promise and head to Colorado's sub-freezing temperatures on a high note.

"I didn't want to make any plan outside of showing up here tonight," Shoji said. "We didn't even think ... last year I was trying to figure out what we were going to do after, so, you know, we don't know. We're staying here tonight and probably tomorrow and maybe Monday. I have not even put in one ounce of energy into figuring out what we're going to do now."

NOTES

Along with those who traveled with the Rainbow Wahine, the remarkably pro-Hawai'i crowd at Galen Center last night included former Rainbows Kari Gregory, Alfie Reft and Tom and Diane (Sebastian) Pestolesi. Gregory drove four hours from Las Vegas.

"I had a feeling we'd have a lot of green in the stands and we did," UH coach Dave Shoji said. "We had a lot of people who actually flew over and we have a huge Hawaiian population in Southern California and a lot were here."

Minnesota (6) was the highest seeded team not to reach the Sweet 16. Saint Louis (13) Tulane (16) were the only other seeded teams that did not survive opening weekend.

Eighth-seeded Cal ended WAC co-champion New Mexico State's season in four at Berkeley.