LAS CRUCES, N.M. — Folks hereabouts are talking excitedly, hopefully, about the impending University of Hawai'i-New Mexico State showdown.

Saturday's football game?

Well, maybe, that, too.

But you'll hear just as much passion about ... women's volleyball.

As they both begin the conference regular season stretch run today with road matches, the Rainbow Wahine (19-3, 12-1 WAC) and Aggies (17-7, 11-1 WAC) are tied in the loss column at one.

And unless one of them stumbles against inferior competition, they'll finish in the first Western Athletic Conference regular season tie in a decade heading into the WAC Tournament, Nov. 20 to 23, at the Stan Sheriff Center. Not since 1998, when UH and Brigham Young closed with 13-1 records and then went on to play an epic tournament championship match, has anybody pressed the Rainbow Wahine to the wire in this conference.

But the Aggies' stunning three-set sweep of UH last month in Manoa has, to this point, made things interesting in a conference where Rainbow Wahine runaways have been the abiding, often yawn-producing, rule.

And, here, in the proudly proclaimed "Land of Enchantment," they are very interested in their volleyball as turnouts of up to 7,115 for matches with the Rainbow Wahine certify. Twelve-time WAC regular season champion UH is the standard by which the Aggies have come to measure their volleyball. Little by little they have been closing a once-considerable gap, knocking off UH for the first time two years ago and ending in the process UH's NCAA-record 114-match conference winning streak that endured for nearly eight years.

The Aggies have pressed UH before but never looked as strong doing it as they have this year. Last year, NMSU lost two matches and Hawai'i went in until its last match of the regular season without a setback. In 2006, UH and NMSU were 12-1 until the final three conferences matches when the Aggies took a pratfall

So when the Aggies not only beat but swept UH in October, it got people to wondering, maybe, just possibly, this could be the year. With the Aggies proceeding to mowing down the rest of the WAC with eight sweeps in the last nine matches, it has stoked hopes.

You hear about the growing fervor and expanding expectations from folks around town who, when you mention UH, invariably turn the talk to the volleyball season as much as Saturday's football game.

At a conference to discuss the UH-NMSU football game, even Bob Sherman, color analyst on football for the Aggie Radio Network and a volleyball fan, wanted to talk some WAC volleyball postseason scenarios.

The biggest UH-NMSU meeting this fall? It might just be on the court.

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