Jamie Houston hammered away the memory of a ridiculously bad night in Reno, lifting eighth-ranked Hawai'i to a 25-12, 25-23, 25-16 volleyball victory over Nevada last night.

The Western Athletic Conference match was watched by 3,483 at Stan Sheriff Center. They saw the good, the bad and the best of the Rainbow Wahine, not necessarily in that order.

Hawai'i (18-3, 11-1 WAC) was practically perfect in the opening set. It took its lead from Houston, who fittingly moved ahead of two-time national Player of the Year Teee Williams into second on the UH career kill list, with 1,882 kills. Kim Willoughby, the 2003 national Player of the Year, is first with 2,598 kills — sixth-best in NCAA history.

When the teams played two weeks ago at Nevada, Houston was a woeful 5 for 21 with six errors. Last night she buried five of her first six swings, finished the first set 8 for 9 and finished the night 19 for 28, with an audacious .607 hitting percentage.

"I knew I played bad up there," Houston said. "I wanted to show them something different."

She was amazing to watch.

"It's really overpowering when you see it up close," said UH coach Dave Shoji. "There is just no stopping it when she's on like that and gets the right set. She's going over and hitting the ball extremely hard. Teams have problems blocking her. When it does get by the block, it's probably not coming back either.

"She creates a lot of angles most hitters don't. She touches 10 (feet) 7 so the ball is coming from a high angle and it's hard and you can't duplicate that in practice. You'd have to get a guy to do that against you. If you are Nevada or Utah State, you can't prepare for that if she's on."

Then Shoji shook his head and came back to earth, much like Houston and his team have done several times this year. "And," he added, "I've got to say she hit negative at Nevada so I don't think they were quite ready for what she brought tonight."

Nevada (11-11, 6-6) could not stop her, or any other UH outside hitter early. Houston, Aneli Cubi-Otineru (five) and Kanani Danielson (four) had all but five of the 22 first-set kills and hit an astounding — and error-free — .739. In contrast, the Wolf Pack had five kills, and didn't get its second until it trailed 17-7.

It was so one-sided that when UH junior defensive specialist Jayme Lee came in to serve at 21-11, Amber Kaufman set her and Lee ripped the ball off the tape and down for her first kill of the year and seventh of her career. The 'Bows also outdug the shell-shocked Pack, 17-5.

"I think what was most impressive was that they had 22 kills in Game 1," said Nevada coach Devin Scruggs. "That's almost unheard of. They had 22 earned points in a game to 25. That's just ridiculous. And we didn't touch many of those balls."

The Rainbows dropped with a thud in the second set, which has become a habit. Nevada shook off its first-set free fall and pulled ahead 14-10 with the help of three stuffs five UH hitting errors.

Part of the turnaround could be traced to the Pack players, who came out hot after their coaches accused them of being intimidated in the first set, and also got a spark from freshman Erin Garvey. Part came from the 'Bows, who admittedly lost focus — again — and also tried some new options that did not work.

The Rainbows dropped the different look and rallied again behind Houston, who dropped three straight kills to force a Wolf Pack timeout.

"I want to get everyone involved," UH setter Dani Mafua said. "But when we were kind of in a slump I was telling her (Houston), 'I'm going to ride you all the way.' And she was finishing, which is what we need. That's why we ended up on top in the second."

Hawai'i pulled even at 16 and outscored Nevada the rest of the way, with help from three missed Nevada serves.

There would be no more letdowns, particularly after the 'Bows were "refocused" by their coaches in the locker room during the 10-minute break. Hawai'i scored seven of the first eight points in the final set and Nevada never got closer than four.

The Pack has won six of its last eight, the losses against UH. Last night, Nevada managed just 23 kills — eight by WAC Player of the Week Lindsay Baldwin — and was out-dug 54-25.

Hawai'i moved back into first place, a half-match ahead of New Mexico State. UH hosts Utah State (9-14, 7-5) tonight in its final WAC regular-season home match. The Aggies ended Hawai'i's 108-match conference home winning streak in their last appearance here.

NOTES

St. Francis graduate Kylie Harrington, who has had seven double-doubles this season, finished with three kills and five digs for Nevada. Kamehameha graduate Tatiana Santiago came in to get five digs and three assists. ... The Wolf Pack is now 1-31 against UH and has been swept the past seven meetings. That lone win came in 1992 and helped keep Hawai'i from playing in the postseason for the only time in history..