Hawai'i opened its volleyball season with a futile chase of defending national champion Penn State last night. The Rainbow Wahine never came close when it counted and fell, 25-21, 25-19, 25-19, in the 21st annual Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Classic.

If they were discouraged, it didn't show.

"Honestly, I never felt at any time that we were losing," said UH senior Tara Hittle. "We did a lot of things right. Obviously there are some little areas we need to improve, when we let them get ahead. Obviously they are a real good team, too. ... We played hard and later in the season we will be much better than we are now, which is really promising because I think we are pretty good now."

Even Hawai'i coach Dave Shoji sounded optimistic after getting swept, in particular praising his setting, defense, passing — "the best we've had in a long time" — and freshman starter Kanani Herring, who looked awfully comfortable in her collegiate debut against the top-ranked team in the country.

"I thought we were in every game, but whenever we got close they were just more physical than us ...," he said. "Everybody had their bright moments. We played pretty good defense for the most part. Most of their kills were going over our block and down in front of our defense."

In the early match, sixth-ranked UCLA opened with a 25-21, 25-22, 25-17 sweep of Ohio. It was the debut for Bobcat coach Ryan Theis, who was an assistant at Florida the past two years.

Then, before 5,565 at Stan Sheriff Center, Hawai'i opened with Dani Mafua at setter, Amber Kaufman and Catherine Fowler in the middle, Aneli Cubi-Otineru and Herring on the left side, Jamie Houston opposite the setter and Hittle at libero — for the first time in three years.

Sophomore Liz Ka'aihue, the starting libero last year, is out with a sprained knee. Sophomore Amanda Simmons took Fowler's place in the final game.

The 'Bows' middle attack remains a mystery as far as personnel and pursuit. They set it just 17 times last night, for six kills. In contrast, Hittle's presence at libero was clearly a hit. Her passing was nearly perfect and the 6-foot senior had one-third of her team's digs, covering a huge area.

"I've always been a real big fan of Tara Hittle," Penn State coach Russ Rose said. "I just think she's great. I love that she changes positions, but doesn't change her disposition. She always plays hard, got a smile on her face. She competes at a level you have to admire."

Hawai'i still spent almost the entire 92-minute match playing catchup. It started slowly with Houston, second in the country in kills last season, getting two in the first five serves and following up with eight errors.

The Rainbows, down 10-6 early, staged two mini-runs to get within one, behind their defense and Herring. The last brought them to 20-19, but Penn State called time and the 'Bows broke down. The Nittany Lions scored their final five points on two off-speed shots, two missed blocking assignments and a missed block coverage.

The Hawai'i slide continued into Game 2 and PSU sprinted to a 10-4 advantage before the Rainbows gathered themselves for another surge, led this time by Houston. Her first two kills after her offensive freeze helped UH claw to 14-13.

But again, there would be no catching the Lions. They scored 10 of the last 15 points, making the 'Bows again look bad in the process. Hawai'i hit zero (8 kills, 8 errors) in the game and had just four digs. It was more of the same in the final game, with the teams tied until 12, then the Nittany Lions pulled away behind All-Americans Megan Hodge (13 kills) and Nicole Fawcett (12).

Despite a percentage nearly 70 points below last year, the Nittany Lions out-hit the Rainbows by more than 100 points (.284 to .156), out-blocked them 5-3 and out-dug them 39-33.

But even Rose was complimentary of UH after his team's 27th straight victory — a streak that goes back to Sept. 15, 2007 — and fourth win over Hawai'i without a loss. He called his team's 14 hitting errors "more than we had all last season" and spoke glowingly of "the career Kanani is going to have."

"Winning in Hawai'i is always a task and they forced us to play very well," Rose said. "To me, this is a much-improved Hawai'i team than in the video against Middle Tennessee (the final UH match of 2007). ... They pass well, they play hard and they've got a lot of moving pieces that they can use in a variety of ways to stretch people out."

Bottom line, his team was simply too good, at every position. Cubi-Otineru led the Rainbow Wahine with nine kills on .350 hitting, while the other starting outsides hit a combined .019.

UCLA trailed midway through the first two games against Ohio. The Bruins got 13 kills from Dicey McGraw and 10 from Ali Daley. Ohio was led by Meghan Simons, with 10 kills on .600 hitting, and Ellen Herman with nine kills, 10 digs and two blocks.

QUICK SETS: Penn State plays UCLA today at 5 p.m., followed by Hawai'i and Ohio. The tournament concludes tomorrow, with Olympic decathlon champion Bryan Clay expected to make an appearance.