After getting ambushed by Hawai'i at home two weeks ago, New Mexico State ambushed back last night as drama returned to Western Athletic Conference volleyball.

The Aggies stunned the sixth-ranked Rainbow Wahine, 25-22, 26-24, 25-21. With 4,976 watching in disbelief at Stan Sheriff Center, NMSU won in Hawai'i and beat a Top-10 team for the first time, and defeated UH for only the second time in 26 tries. The last was two years ago, when the Aggies ended the 'Bows' NCAA-record 132-match conference winning streak.

This upset was much more complete, particularly coming so soon after Hawai'i's sweep in Las Cruces.

"I think we got lulled into a false sense of security," UH coach Dave Shoji said. "When you win 3-0 and people tell you, 'Hey, you guys crushed them and dominated them.' ... We knew it wasn't true. We had a difficult time there, but we played better. The difference in the two teams is not huge. Except for tonight, there was a huge difference. We go in with the mindset that we beat them 3-0 but 3-0 doesn't tell you the whole story."

After all the team's five-set battles the past three years, New Mexico State (11-7, 6-1 WAC) broke down the 'Bows this time, simultaneously easing into a first-place tie atop the WAC. Hawai'i (13-3, 6-1) had not lost since August, coming into the WAC's most crucial match of the regular season on a 12-match and 18-set winning streak.

New Mexico State fell behind 7-3 in the first five minutes, then went on a 17-8 run to seize control of the first set. After self-destructing to start the second set in an 8-1 hole, it finally caught Hawai'i at 24 — after stuffing three set points — and won on a shank and one of the Rainbows' 27 hitting errors.

"The end of Game 2 was a big deal the way we came back," said NMSU coach Mike Jordan. "We really made some great plays and the blocking was the big deal. We stuffed them a lot and that just changed the complexion of the match right there. Our confidence went way up when we made that comeback."

This was nothing like what happened in Las Cruces Sept. 27, when Hawai'i squeaked by NMSU in all three sets, but never lost its composure and never let NMSU take control.

There would be only 30 Hawai'i kills last night. Its .023 hitting percentage was its worst since rally scoring started in 2001, and beyond. There was enough blame to cover the court. NMSU's serving got UH in trouble and so did the 'Bows' passing. From there, the setting faltered, hitters were humbled and the Aggies just kept coming, inspired by their defense — they outdug UH 56-41 and out-blocked it 12-7.5 — and Hawai'i's increasingly lost look.

"Usually when we look across the net we see a very determined team," said NMSU senior Lindsey Yon, whose double-double (10 kills, 11 digs) seemed to thwart every hint of a Rainbow rally. "You look in their eyes and they're saying, 'We're going to win.' Tonight not one of them had it, so we were going to take it from them."

The final set was tied nine times early before the UH offense disappeared again. NMSU went on an 11-3 run, with the help of six Rainbow hitting errors, to pull ahead 21-13. It finally finished off Hawai'i on the fourth match point.

"It's huge. It's just amazing," Yon said. "We really didn't have a stellar night, but we were able to come together as a team, have fun and take care of business. That's what we've been training to do all season so I'm so happy it came together."

Coaches and players spoke at length about aggressiveness and timidity after both matches, only last night there was a complete role reversal. The Rainbow Wahine admitted they might have come in "too cocky," then got "selfish, timid and undisciplined" as the Aggies seized control. Senior Jamie Houston, the only 'Bow with more than seven kills (she had 11), called it "one of the worst losses in my career."

Shoji saw his team "lose confidence after Game 1 and we kept looking back rather than trying to score more and take charge of the game." He talked of Kanani Herring's injury only in passing — the freshman, coming off an ankle sprain, still was not mobile enough to be effective in the front row — and placed the blame for the loss on everyone from the coaches on down.

"We just were out of sync the whole night," he said. "We had leads in 1 and 2, but it just never felt comfortable. We didn't run much offense. Everything was too safe — our hitters were safe, setting was safe and we just couldn't create any point-scoring opportunities. If you would have told me they would hit 16 percent then I would have said we win easy, but when you hit 2 percent you're not going to win any matches.

"They played great defense, they knew what we were going to do before we did it. They just outplayed us the whole night."

The Aggies, unlike two weeks ago, were the aggressors.

"Late in games at our place I thought we were tentative and didn't work that hard," Jordan said. "We were kind of hoping Hawai'i made mistakes. We talked about that and we just wanted to be the more aggressive team. ... Today we were very aggressive. Even when things weren't going well we just decided we were going to let it fly and not get too frustrated and it worked out good for us."

It also forced the Rainbow Wahine to look deep inside, and dig deeper next time.

"I never want to have anybody take losing lightly," Shoji said. "I think we're all upset about it and rightfully so. We should be upset about the way we played and the way we coached. It was just inadequate. But if this will serve as some kind of incentive for us ... I hate that phrase a 'good loss,' but we've got to turn this into a good loss and use it to motivate us."