LAS VEGAS — Relentless from September to November, third-ranked Hawai'i finished off the Western Athletic Conference with a flourish last night, sweeping New Mexico State, 25-12, 25-17, 25-23, in the tournament final.

The Rainbow Wahine (28-2) have won the last 12 WAC volleyball championships and 30 consecutive WAC Tournament matches. They take a 24-match winning streak into next week's NCAA Tournament. Pairings will be announced Sunday.

UH officially earned the WAC's automatic bid last night in front of 1,990 at Orleans Arena. But the 'Bows have been beating up on conference teams for two months. They were never seriously challenged and only three teams even took a set off them.

The Aggies (19-9), who took Hawai'i to four sets twice during the regular season, came close last night. They pulled themselves together for one final push, but it was not to be.

NMSU has now lost to UH in the last four WAC finals. This was the first time it was swept.

"I think it's the best team they've had since we've been in the WAC with them," said NMSU coach Mike Jordan, whose team has gone to the NCAA Tournament five of the last six years. "It may not have the blocking ability it had a couple years ago but they pass it so much better than they have in a long time, their service game is so much better, they're better attacking out of the backrow than they have been in a long time. Since 2005, this is the best team they've had. And they've got experience. They went to the Elite Eight last year and return a lot of those players."

Hawai'i was simply irrepressible, through the entire WAC season.

"We had some bad games, we never had a bad match," UH coach Dave Shoji said. "I think the team is just more mature this year. We've got great senior leadership. They were excited every time they played, all our seniors, especially the ones who came off the bench (Stephanie Brandt, Jayme Lee and Catherine Fowler). They just wanted to be out there. I give them a lot of credit for us being up almost every night.

"But we're just better too, a better volleyball team. Better in a couple positions than last year and everybody has gotten better."

WAC Player of the Year — and WAC Tournament MVP —Kanani Danielson put the Rainbow Wahine on her right arm in the final set, blasting six of her match-high 14 kills.

Most came over 5-foot-8 NMSU setter Jennah DeVries, but Danielson was an equal-opportunity Aggie-buster. The 5-10 sophomore ended the first set by stuffing 6-foot-2 Kelsey Brennan.

That set came easily to the 'Bows. They fired five aces at the tentative Aggies, who missed three serves.

Hawai'i ripped off the final nine points with Liz Ka'aihue serving. She became the fourth Rainbow Wahine to get an ace — and she had two.

Ka'aihue was back at it almost immediately in Set 2, serving four in a row to give Hawai'i a 7-2 advantage. The Aggies never got closer than four again as UH hit .500 for the set.

Danielson drilled five kills and every other hitter had two in that set, but Jordan traced the difference to passing and serving. "Our serve-receive game failed miserably and it was great for them ," he said. "Kanani fell down passing a short serve and it still was perfect."

The Aggies found some life to start the third set, scoring five of the first six points while holding the 'Bows without a kill.

"We were so excited early, but I think we were a little nervous," said NMSU senior Krista Altermatt, who had a team-high 10 kills. "We seemed to calm down and realize it's just volleyball."

NMSU held on until Hawai'i tied it at 21 on a stuff by seniors Aneli Cubi-Otineru and Amber Kaufman — one of just five UH blocks in the match. The 'Bows would score nine of the last 13 points of the WAC season.

"The players stayed composed," Shoji said. "The coaches were getting a little iffy about assignments, but once we took a deep breath we got back on track. We earned a real point on every serve and kept creeping back in the game. They (the Aggies) saw that and got a little tight."

"If we keep following our assignments, it works for us," Danielson added. "It's the times we have these little brain farts that we struggle."

Those have been few and far between the past few months. Kaufman's sixth kill tied at 22 and Stephanie Ferrell's fifth made it 23-22. The Aggies' 18th hitting error gave UH a serve for the title.

The hugely pro-Hawai'i crowd stood, but NMSU erased the first match point. Then Cubi-Otineru ended it by crushing her ninth kill.

"Game 3 our block had a little effect and it was a good game," Jordan said. "I was really hoping the whole match would look like Game 3. Two good teams playing really good ball at least we had a chance to win it."

NOTES

The NCAA Tournament Selection Show will be at 10 a.m. (HST) Sunday on ESPNews. The first round begins next Thursday, Friday or Saturday at 16 sites.

The Rainbow Wahine are 33-2 in the WAC Tournament, losing only in the 1996 and '97 finals, both times to Brigham Young.

Aneli Cubi-Otineru was named to the all-tournament team for the third straight year. She is now 23 kills short of 1,000. Junior setter Dani Mafua was also named all-tournament. The last two years, senior Stephanie Brandt was on the team as setter.

Attendance at this year's neutral site was 4,636 over the three nights. Last year in Hawai'i, the tournament drew 13,827.

New Mexico State plays at 23rd-ranked Colorado State Saturday.