As the smell of food and sound of good cheer spread through the parking lot of UCLA's Easton Field, some of the Bruin staff asked University of Hawai'i softball coach Bob Coolen what was going on.

"I told them, 'We're having an old-fashioned Hawai'i potluck,' " Coolen said of UH's celebration following the clinching of the NCAA regional championship with a 9-0 six-inning, mercy-rule-abbreviated victory over Loyola Marymount.

Not for the first time did somebody from UCLA wonder what the Rainbow Wahine were still doing in the Bruins' backyard.

Earlier the Rainbow Wahine (49-11) had been forced to check out of their Westwood hotel because UCLA, which booked it on UH's behalf, apparently didn't think Hawai'i would be around that long. "I'm not sure if they thought we'd be going home early or what, but the hotel told us they (UCLA) had us leaving Saturday and another (group) was coming in so we had to get out," Coolen said.

With UCLA, an 11-time national champion, hosting the four-team event and UH, which had had a history of being unable to close out tournaments in the postseason, it might have been a natural assumption the Rainbow Wahine would be the first to go.

But not this time. In a breakthrough for the 28-year old program, the Rainbow Wahine have their first regional title and, now, a date with No. 1-ranked Tennessee (57-5) in Knoxville on Friday. The winner of the best two-of-three game Super Regional heads to the NCAA World Series in Oklahoma City, Okla., on May 30.

To advance out of Westwood, the Rainbow Wahine had to put some history behind them, too. Going into the game with LMU, UH was the the only unbeaten team in the double-elimination field, needing one win and having two games, if necessary, in which to get it. A position that had not brought out the best in UH before. "We've been a little snake-bitten in that position in the past," Coolen said.

UH was similarly in the driver's seat at last year's WAC tournament and lost twice to Nevada. In 1994 in an NCAA regional at Kansas, UH dropped two to Missouri.

"We knew what we had to have," said Coolen of his team, lacking both a hotel and plane reservations. "We didn't have to talk about it. At this point, the players knew."

They knew enough to jump out to a 3-0 first-inning lead, paving the way to an early start for the party.

"It was a great potluck," Coolen said. "We were in no hurry to leave."

No matter what the reservations said.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.