STANFORD, Calif. — At this point in the volleyball season, the NCAA has 14 very good teams and Penn State and Texas, which are clearly the two to beat.

All the teams in this weekend's Sweet 16 are much better than they were a year ago or even in August. All are also a little worse for wear.

Third-ranked Hawai'i hit the wall and had to claw its way over to beat USC in Saturday's second round.

"The players understand the situation," UH coach Dave Shoji said. "At this point we just want them to stay in system, run our offense and play Wahine volleyball. Then we'll take what happens."

Coach Kevin Hambly, whose eighth-ranked Illinois team takes on the Rainbow Wahine in tomorrow's regional semifinal, jokes that the Illini are "held together with duct tape" after a brutal Big Ten season.

"But," Hambly adds, "we know who we are."

Hawai'i and Illinois play at 3 p.m. HST at Stanford's Maples Pavilion. The fourth-ranked Cardinal take on 16th-ranked Michigan at 5 p.m. Winners play Saturday (6:30 p.m. HST) for a place in next week's final four.

It is a free for all.

"The one word I would use is parity," Shoji said. "It's just more even this year. Throw out Penn State and Texas, who are the two dominant teams now. If you go (No.) 3 to 20 anybody can win and that's been proven already. When Baylor and Colorado State are in there those teams obviously won against bigger-name teams that were ranked higher. The strength of the tournament is just incredible."

A look at the teams in the Stanford Regional:

NO. 12 SEED HAWAI'I (30-2)

Numbers: The Rainbow Wahine, ranked third in the coaches poll, have won their last 26 67-24 in NCAA Tournament, with three national championships (1982, '83 and '87) 25th regional, and 11th in last 12 years season-high 68 digs in four-set win over USC Saturday.

Faces: Amber Kaufman (6-0 Sr.), Aneli Cubi-Otineru (5-11 Sr.), Dani Mafua (5-10 Jr.) and Kanani Danielson (5-10 So.) are all-West Region selections Danielson averaged nearly six kills last week.

Top 50 nationally: Kaufman is fourth nationally in hitting (.434), Cubi-Otineru 11th in aces (0.5), Mafua 11th in assists (11.78), Brittany Hewitt (6-3 Fr.) 19th in blocks (1.36) and Danielson 33rd in kills (4.23). As a team, Hawai'i is third in hitting (.316), 11th in kills (14.61), 12th in assists (13.58), 16th in aces (1.73) and 42nd in blocks (2.46).

NO. 5 ILLINOIS (26-5)

Numbers: Eighth-ranked Fighting Illini won 17 of last 19 to finish second in Big Ten — best finish since 2003 Changed from 6-2 offense last year to 5-1 this year out-blocked conference opponents 207 to 123 and had 18.5 in second round against 23rd-ranked Dayton first back-to-back regional appearances in 20 years and 11th regional overall 25-17 in NCAA Tournament 1-7 against Hawai'i (0-3 postseason).

Faces: 2008 second-team All-American Laura DeBruler (5-10 Jr.) averaging 4.5 kills, hitting 56 points higher than last season (.309) and named all-Mideast Region Johannah Bangert (6-1 Sr.), trying to become second player to lead country in blocking two straight years, and setter Hillary Haen (5-10 Jr.) are all-Big Ten lost senior libero Ashley Edinger to knee injury Oct. 31.

Top 50 nationally: Bangert leads country in blocks (1.61), DeBruler is 13th in kills (4.5) and Haen is 16th in assists (11.42). As a team, Illinois is 18th in blocks (2.7), 31st in hitting (.250) and 35th in assists (12.83).

NO. 4 STANFORD (23-7)

Numbers: Fourth-ranked Cardinal won fourth straight Pac-10 title lost last three national championship finals won more NCAA titles (6), made more final fours (18) and played in more national championship matches (14) than any other team 94 wins is most in NCAA Tournament history 12-1 at Maples Pavilion this season 13-18 against Hawai'i, including three-set loss in September (3-3 postseason).

Faces: Alix Klineman (6-4 Jr.) had 28 kills and 17 digs in five-set win over Saint Mary's in second round and averaging more than four kills Cassidy Lichtman (6-1 Jr.) is second in kills and digs Janet Okogbaa (6-3 Sr.) leads team in hitting and blocks all are all-Pacific Region.

Top 50 nationally: Okogbaa is 15th in hitting (.388) and 32nd in blocks (1.26), Gabi Ailes is 16th in digs (5.3) and Klineman is 31st in kills (4.24). As a team, Stanford is 13th in hitting (.270), 20th in blocks (2.66), 23rd in assists (13.14) and 30th in kills (13.97).

NO. 13 MICHIGAN (26-9)

Numbers: 16th-ranked Wolverines allowed Niagara just four points in opening set of NCAA Tournament and held subregional opponents to .073 hitting third consecutive regional 11-9 in NCAA Tournament tied for fourth in Big Ten 0-2 against Hawai'i.

Faces: Juliana Paz (6-0 Sr.) leads team in kills and had 18 in five-set win over Ohio in second round Lexi Zimmerman (5-10 Jr.) is fourth Wolverine to reach 4,000 assists both are all-Mideast Region players from seven states and Brazil.

Top 50 nationally: Alex Hunt (6-0 So.) is 28th in aces (0.44) and Zimmerman 32nd in assists (10.94). As a team, Michigan is 31st in kills (13.94), 32nd in aces (1.61), 34th in assists (12.88) and 43rd in hitting (.243).

NOTES

All Hawai'i matches will be broadcast live on ESPN/1420 AM. Both of tomorrow's regional semifinals will be webcast live on the internet, at http://gostanford.com/sports/w-volley/spec-rel/0910-ncaa-wvolley-tourneycentral.html. Saturday's regional final will be shown live on ESPNU.

Regional tickets can be purchased online (gostanford.com) or by phone (1-800-STANFORD). The Cardinal commonly have long walk-up lines and is encouraging fans to buy tickets early, particularly with temperatures in the 30's this week and rain expected.