The University of Hawai'i women's volleyball team appears ready to do what it does best — dominate Western Athletic Conference opposition.

The No. 15 Rainbow Wahine were never threatened last night in a 30-21, 30-15, 30-18 victory over Fresno State before 5,301 at the Stan Sheriff Center.

"The past weekends we've had multiple games so just one game it was easy for us to focus on, and we were very determined to get the job done," UH setter Kanoe Kamana'o said.

It was Hawai'i's WAC opener and 126th consecutive victory over a conference opponent.

And Hawai'i (7-4, 1-0) did it without leading hitter Jamie Houston, who was held out of the match for violating team policy, according to UH coach Dave Shoji.

Hawai'i didn't show any of the inconsistency that plagued it during a tough pre-WAC schedule. But make no mistake, Fresno State (2-11, 0-2) is a work in progress.

The Rainbow Wahine really showed their dominance in Game 2, when they rejected eight shots.

"We just figured out their tendencies and took that away from them," UH outside hitter Sarah Mason said. "We dug well around the block. It was good to get our blocking going because we've been struggling with it. It's detrimental to the other team when you're blocking balls."

Fresno State, which also hit seven balls out in the game, had nine kills and 15 hitting errors in 49 attempts for a negative-.122 hitting percentage. The Bulldogs also had four service errors.

For the match, Hawai'i held a 15-5 advantage in blocks.

"We worked really hard on our block this week," Shoji said. "The movement was much better. We're trying to take away the hitters' best shots. We started off slow, but once we got lined up right it looked pretty good."

Middle blockers Juliana Sanders and Kari Gregory assisted on seven blocks for Hawai'i.

"We don't match up well with them in the middle," said Fresno State coach Ruben Nieves. "We have two freshmen who aren't very big, and it's not like they don't have weapons on the outside. I think the current Hawai'i team, their strength is in the middle."

The Rainbow Wahine were solid in the serve-receive game, so Kamana'o was able to utilize all of her hitting options.

Mason had 11 kills, Jessica Keefe added eight and Gregory had seven for the Rainbow Wahine, who hit .352 in Hawai'i's third sweep of the season.

"We try to diversify the offense definitely and get everyone involved," Kamana'o said. "The middles did a good job of making themselves available. When Fresno stayed on our middles it opened up the outside."

Nieves said his team's service errors-to-aces ratio of 11-1 was the worst of the season.

He also said the Bulldogs struggled with their passing.

"We're not an overpowering offense so we have to pass the ball up to the net and give our hitters the best possible situations to hit in," Nieves said.

As for Houston, the team leader with 5.15 kills per game, Shoji said: "There's some issues that need to be worked out. We're working on them and hopefully we'll have a solution the first of the week."

Houston, who wasn't in the arena last night, had started all 10 matches this season.

In a scheduling quirk, the teams will play back-to-back with a match Sept. 29 in Fresno, Calif.

With Hawai'i already having lost outside hitter Tara Hittle and middle blocker Nickie Thomas for the season because of injuries, Nieves is eager to play Hawai'i again.

"I'm glad we're playing them now," he said. "Evidently they're not at full strength. I'm glad we're playing them next week. It's not easy anytime we play them, anywhere we play them. But if we have to play Hawai'i twice I think this is as good a time as ever."

Angela Wiggins had 10 kills for the Bulldogs.

Reach Kyle Sakamoto at ksakamoto@honoluluadvertiser.com.