In a water polo home opener that could not come fast enough, fourth-ranked University of Hawai'i stifled fifth-ranked Arizona State's attack to earn an 11-5 victory last night. A crowd of some 200 watched at the Duke Kahanamoku Aquatic Complex.

The win allowed the Rainbow Wahine to swap places with the Sun Devils in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation cellar. Hawai'i (9-6) is 1-3 in the conference going into Tuesday's home match with second-ranked USC. ASU (9-8) dropped to 0-3. Both teams' losses have all come against top-eight opponents.

All of Hawai'i's came on the road.

"We do what nobody else does," UH coach Michel Roy said. "We travel like crazy. We were on the road 22 days of 28 in February. We beat (No. 3) UCLA, but then we die because we have to play eight games in 10 days. Nobody else does that."

The 'Bows' last match and flight were more than two weeks ago and they looked rested and ready last night. After allowing the Sun Devils to get the first goal less than two minutes into the game, Hawai'i held them scoreless more than 7 minutes.

By then, Lisa Van Raalte had scored twice. Carmen Eggens and Ryan Hanson-Swaner made it 4-1 with goals in the final 1:17 of the first period. ASU opened the scoring again in the second period, but was shut out for nearly 15 minutes after that.

By the time the Sun Devils scored again they were down 7-3 with 27 seconds left in the third. To add insult to their frustration, Leonie Van Der Molen got a pass down low as the period ended, did a 360, and stuffed the ball in the goal as time expired.

It was Van Der Molen's second goal of the quarter. Kelly Mason and Eggens both had hat tricks, two of Mason's goals of the spectacular type.

A bigger number was one, or how many goals ASU All-American Addison McGrath got. The Sun Devils' only senior, who scored a school-record seven against UH last year, had only their final goal last night. It was her 42nd of the season.

"We played great. I'm very happy with the girls," Roy said. "We played solid defense. They have a world-class athlete (McGrath). She's very good and we shut her down."

Arizona State came in averaging 10 goals a game. Shutting ASU down left Roy energized.

"We're there," he said. "Sometimes it doesn't look like it because we travel so much, but now our games are spread out. We're more rested, we have more energy."