Transforming itself from punchee to puncher, 15th-ranked Hawai'i opened defense of yet another Western Athletic Conference volleyball championship with a 30-18, 30-13, 30-27 blitz of Idaho last night.

The Vandals (3-7, 0-1 WAC) were picked to finish third in the coaches' preseason poll, but for much of last night they looked as lost as Hawai'i (7-3, 1-0) was in its mismatch with fifth-ranked UCLA two weeks ago.

The Rainbow Wa-hine have bounced back with a vengeance.

While a Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 4,618 watched with a communal grin and very little stress — in radical contrast to the 'Bows' brutal preseason — Idaho stayed with Hawai'i for 23 serves. From 12-11 in Game 1 to the match's rather ragged conclusion, the Rainbow Wahine had their fourth straight victory by the throat.

For most of the night, they passed well enough to diversify their offense, hit well enough to win and served the Vandals — who took two games off them last year — off the court. Hawai'i's dominance diminished in the final game, when it got bored and Idaho began to pass better, but the Vandals never found a way to stop the UH attack or get Haley Larsen started.

Larsen, the reigning WAC Player of the Week, came in averaging 5 1/2 kills a game. She had 35 of Idaho's 69 kills in its last match. She had eight last night, and hit .000.

"Tougher serving made it a lot easier to key in on Larsen because she's the primary part of their offense at this time," UH senior Juliana Sanders said. "It made it a lot easier and we followed our blocking schemes and adjusted when we had to."

The Vandals did not.

"They looked tentative tonight," UH coach Dave Shoji said. "We started out OK and we were doing a pretty good job on their best player so maybe that didn't allow them to play well. We knew she (Larsen) took a lot of swings and we tried to set up a block and defense to stop her. You have to pay attention to what the other team does and our team is learning how to do that now."

Jamie Houston launched four of her match-high 15 kills in a 7-1 UH run that made it 19-12 in Game 1. The 'Bows would go on a 4-0 burst soon after, then scored five in a row with Stephanie Brandt serving — two on aces. Brandt had five of Hawai'i's six in the match.

The Vandals came off the first-game loss with less confidence than they had at the start, which wasn't much. Brandt served Hawai'i into a 7-0 lead.

"I was having fun," Brandt said. "There's no pressure so I can rip it."

Idaho was down 14-3 when it took its last timeout. UH started to substitute at 23-6, but stayed with the same starters in each game that played so well last week, with one exception: Kari Gregory for Sanders in the third.

Sanders sat with five kills in six swings, two blocks and two rare digs; the 'Bows had 18 in Game 1, with Houston getting six of her match-high 13.

After a slow start in the final game, Hawai'i finished Idaho off with Gregory kicking in three kills and two blocks.

"For us to come out in Game 3 and have a little effort and maturity and not have it the first two games is unacceptable," Vandals coach Debbie Buchanan said.

For the match, the UH middles hit over .400, while the outsides were at just over .200 with 15 of the team's 18 hitting errors. Other than that, which could be blamed in part on some sloppy passing, Shoji was relatively happy and ready to move on to Boise State (3-6) tonight. The Broncos were swept at Utah State Thursday in their conference opener.

"We're going to see a really good serving team so that will challenge us," he said. "We started slow passing and we ended slow, but in between we were pretty good. It's a skill we have to constantly work on every single serve and sometimes we don't. We quit moving."

NOTES

'Iolani graduate Kerry Yamamoto is a junior defensive specialist for Idaho. She did not play last night.

Hawai'i has won its last 102 conference home matches, a streak dating back to 1994 — before it joined the WAC.

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.