When the New Mexico State women's volleyball team arrived in town the other day, the least the Western Athletic Conference could have done for the Aggies was send limos to greet them.

Or, a brass band and flowers.

Because the Aggies bring to tomorrow evening's match at the Stan Sheriff Center what this conference — and not a few Rainbow Wahine faithful — have been crying out for the last eight years, a team to not only challenge but light a fire under the University of Hawai'i. An opponent to bring out the best in UH sometime between September and Thanksgiving.

An opponent that wasn't a manufactured threat to the Rainbow Wahine but a real one running neck and neck with them toward the final week of the regular season. In 20th-ranked New Mexico State (28-1, 11-1 WAC), we now have that team and what better regular season stage to have it than on Senior Night, the Rainbow Wahine's regular season home finale?

To call NMSU and UH a rivalry might be premature at this point. At least in the sense that University of the Pacific and Long Beach State were in the old Big West. One match does not a rivalry make. Though we can now at least start to hope for the beginnings of one.

But you have to admit the Aggies certainly got UH's attention last month in ending the Rainbow Wahine's eight-year, 132-match conference winning streak in Las Cruces, N.M.

They did it in ways the rest of the WAC has only dreamed of. Whether you subscribe to UH coach Dave Shoji's contention that the Rainbow Wahine "gave" the match away more than New Mexico State yanked it, at least the Aggies were in a position to take it — and did — which is something no other WAC team has been able to do since Brigham Young parted company with the conference.

Some, such as Fresno State and Nevada, have come agonizingly close, but not until the Aggies won in five had anybody been able to do the deed.

Few here think the Aggies can duplicate the feat in Manoa, but the fact that people are even talking about it says something. So, too, does UH in calling it a "revenge" match, a term we almost have to consult a dictionary when employing it in WAC volleyball context.

What it says is that there is now a legitimate big match to be played in the regular season. One with championship and seeding connotations at a time in the conference season when UH was annually strolling backwards to the postseason in years past.

Much as we — and the Rainbow Wahine — have tried to get excited about WAC competition in the past, the bottom line was that it was going to be a tough sell most nights until somebody finally proved they could beat UH.

Now that somebody, namely NMSU, has it is a showdown to be savored because it has been a long time in coming. And, there's no telling how long the wait might be for the next one. After all, who thought it would be eight years until this one?

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