In its celebrated 35-year history, the University of Hawai'i had opened a volleyball season with two losses at home just once, long before these Rainbow Wahine were alive and four national championships had been won. Somehow, this morning, that is still true.

Tenth-ranked Hawai'i barely averted falling in five a second straight night, rallying past Colorado State, 30-21, 22-30, 27-30, 30-25, 15-13, last night in the ASICS Rainbow Wahine Invitational. A crowd of 4,976 watched the second-round matches at Stan Sheriff Center.

Michigan (2-0) remained on its season-opening roll with a 30-22, 30-26, 30-27 victory over Oregon State (1-1) in last night's first match. The Wolverines, who won their first 13 last year, play CSU today at 3 p.m. That will be followed by Hawai'i and OSU at approximately 5 p.m.

How much Hawai'i has left is a question mark, after 5 hours-plus of court time its first two matches. It will help that UH coach Dave Shoji has used a dozen players each match, but that has been out of necessity, not to save their legs.

In Games 4 and 5 it was just enough to hold off the Rams (0-2), who shredded the Hawai'i block the final four games behind Mekana Barnes and Jamie Strauss, who each had 21 kills.

The fifth game was tied for the eighth and final time at 11. On the next serve, UH senior Kari Gregory — the team's best blocker — went up with Amber Kaufman to get her first stuff. Barnes hit out, but came back with a kill to make it 13-12. Kaufman, who didn't start, blasted her 12th kill to put UH at match point for the third time this year.

The 'Bows didn't get the first two against Michigan Friday or this one, thanks to another Barnes' kill. But senior Juliana Sanders — the one consistent form of offense for UH so far this young season — drilled her 12th kill to end it. Just before, Kaufman crushed a ball that Kateline Batten somehow dug to drag out the drama.

"Sanders just wants the ball. She's hungry," Shoji said. "Her arm is just quicker and she was a force tonight. We just can't get her the ball enough.

"We could be 2-0 and we could be 0-2 and we're 1-1. We got the sideout we needed tonight, where we couldn't get it last night. ... It felt lousy to lose, but it feels pretty good to win."

Kaufman shared his joy and thought she knew the difference.

"I thought we learned from last night," the sophomore said. "We just didn't want to lose like that again. This team, how emotional we are, it really hurts, to the core."

Instead Colorado State has to deal with that today. Last night, the Rams rallied from an awful start, which saw the 'Bows breeze behind first-year setter Stephanie Brandt — who played all five games — and a rejuvenated Jamie Houston.

Any resemblance to Friday's first game was purely coincidental. UH started the trio that nearly salvaged the Michigan match — Aneli Cubi-Otineru (right side), Brandt and Liz Ka'aihue (libero). The Rainbows immediately had a rhythm, with Houston returning to her All-America form (23 kills) after an out-of-body experience Friday.

Houston crushed her first two looks, giving her one more kill than she had opening night. Brandt, who was serving when the 'Bows scored eight straight points in Game 4 Friday, did it again to put UH up 17-8. Hawai'i hit .379 for the game, with Houston (5 kills), Gregory (4) and Sanders going an error-free .733.

But the magic went up in a puff of CSU smoke in Game 2. The Rams, after a ragged loss to OSU Friday and another embarrassment in Game 1, scored 10 of the next 12 points behind Strauss. The 'Bows were too erratic to catch them, with the only bright spot coming when Houston became the 15th in UH history to hit the 1,000-kill mark.

The Rams fed on their success, winning the first three points of Game 3 and going on a 6-1 surge after UH caught them at 10. While CSU was hitting .310 , the 'Bows were out of sync. Their passing showed no improvement over last year and their hitting sank with it. And, for the night, they were out-blocked 16-9.

Shoji tried a third lineup in Game 4, with captain Tara Hittle, hitting .083, playing backrow for Houston and Otineru going to the left side. UH broke away 13-8 as Colorado State started to fade and the 'Bows stopped spraying hitting errors.

They struggled to close, despite going error-free on their first 28 swings, and let the Rams cut a seven-point deficit to 27-25. Finally, Kaufman buried her ninth and 10th kills and Hittle put one down from the back row to force a fifth game.

"I didn't get to start so I had to shake that off and be happy for Aneli and I did," Kaufman said. "You've got to be a teammate. Then I got the call and I just tried to do my best, take some of the anger out on the other team."

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.