Ninth-ranked Hawai'i plays New Mexico State tomorrow in a sequel to last month's Rainbow Wahine crisis in Las Cruces, N.M.

Before more than 7,000 fans, the Aggies knocked Hawai'i out in the first two games and had UH coach Dave Shoji contemplating volleyball disaster before his team scrambled back.

"I felt like our season was hanging in the balance ..." Shoji said back then. "I was having flashes of us having to win the WAC Tournament to make the NCAAs if we don't win this match. So I thought it was huge."

The Aggies (19-5, 11-4 WAC) have only lost once since and come here hoping to clinch second place. They can finish no worse than third in their first WAC season. The earliest they could play Hawai'i again would be in next week's WAC Tournament championship.

Which makes tomorrow a possible preview. The Rainbows (20-6, 14-0) are on a 14-match roll. They clinched their 10th consecutive WAC regular-season title last week and will be seeded first next week in Reno, Nev.

A sweep of their final home matches this week would give them their seventh consecutive unbeaten WAC regular season and stretch their mind-boggling winning streak against WAC opponents to 122.

That could have all changed in Las Cruces.

"I thought at the time that win was huge," Shoji said. "We would have been like 8-7 with a couple bad losses. If we lose that match things could have disintegrated. It really went a long way toward helping us right the ship. Everyone felt very confident after that."

Hawai'i held NMSU to .046 hitting in the final three games, slowing the Aggies' ultra-balanced offense — four players average at least 2 1/2 kills a game — enough with its block to get back in the match.

UH's Sarah Mason, who earned a starting position that night, had five kills and a stuff in the final game, and 19 kills overall. Her offense will be absent this week. Mason re-sprained her right ankle last week against Utah State and will miss this week's matches. Freshman Jamie Houston will start in her place.

"Last time Sarah was just getting healthy and back in the lineup, and she'd been averaging almost five kills a game since," Shoji said. "Now she's down again and we need her to get back up. We're hoping she's ready for the WAC Tournament, but if she's not ready, we won't risk anything for that tournament. We need to get her ready for the NCAAs."

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.