Seventh-ranked Hawai'i blessed its new volleyball floor, then bashed Western Michigan 25-21, 25-16, 25-14 last night in a stunningly polished season opener.

The 'Bows' breathless start to the Chevron Rainbow Wahine Invitational and the season left the 4,461 fans at Stan Sheriff Center in awe. The Broncos, who return every starter from last year's Sweet 16 team, were awestruck.

"That is a very talented team," WMU coach Colleen Munson said. "A team that doesn't let the ball fall. They are always in system. They have a lot of attackers to put the ball away. We just seemed to be on the defensive and we never made adjustments."

Western Michigan is the only unranked team Hawai'i plays the first two weeks. It is also the most experienced, with all returning starters upperclassmen. And it is as diminutive as the Rainbow Wahine, which is why UH coach Dave Shoji was not overwhelmed by his team's performance.

Kanani Danielson, a third-team All-American as a freshman, had a sizzling start to her sophomore season. She blasted 16 kills and tied a career-high with five stuffs, while hitting .467. Her first error came deep into the third set.

Senior Aneli Cubi-Otineru was also on an opening-night tear with an error-free 9-for-15 in the front row and 14 digs and five aces (also tying a career high) in the back.

But they talked about everything but their own games. and so did Shoji.

"Aneli and Kanani are physically very strong," Shoji said. "When you get people the same size across the net from those two they are probably going to win most of the matchups.

"Western Michigan is good, they are just so under-sized. We're so used to playing people that are big with big blocks that it seemed easier. They are going to give a lot of people trouble because they don't make many mistakes. They just couldn't pass tonight."

All the Rainbow Wahine thrived offensively, with the exception of the second middle position — the biggest question mark coming into the season. The team went nearly two full sets without a hitting error, including a mind-boggling, error-free 18-for-36 in Set 2.

"The passes were on the money and (setter) Dani (Mafua) had all the options in system," Danielson said. "I swear it was all one-on-one deals that whole time."

It didn't take that long for Western Michigan to know it was in trouble. Hawai'i served the Broncos silly early, with Amber Kaufman and Cubi-Otineru slamming five aces in UH's first six serves to give the 'Bows a 7-3 advantage.

Munson called those first few minutes of her season the turning point in the match, but was even more disappointed in her team's inability to adjust to the 5-foot-11 Danielson's rain of offensive terror.

"We knew what adjustments we needed to make, we just weren't doing it," Munson said. "That was frustrating, especially for an upperclass team like ourselves that really thrives on strategizing and adjusting as the game goes on."

The first-set gap grew larger Kaufman's second time around, with Cubi-Otineru drilling two kills, Stephanie Ferrell another — after a brilliant dig — and freshman Brittany Hewitt and Cubi-Otineru getting UH's only stuff to make it 17-8.

WMU called its final timeout, took a breath, and couldn't catch up the rest of the night.

Ferrell and Danielson each had four kills in the first set, Danielson in just five swings. She added eight more in the second, when Cubi-Otineru was a smooth 5-for-6.

Western Michigan couldn't keep up, and eventually couldn't cope. The 'Bows took their first lead in the second set at 9-8 and pulled away when the Broncos could do nothing to stop them, scoring the final six points. In the final set, UH started subbing in the midst of a 9-0 run that made it 15-4 — and a short night.

"I just expected us to play like we do in practice," Danielson said. "I thought we did a wonderful job. People would get subbed in, subbed out and they'd execute their duty. It was beautiful how everything just gelled how we expected."

In the opener, ninth-ranked UCLA blitzed 25th-ranked Santa Clara 25-21, 25-16, 25-18.

Bruin junior Dicey McGraw was error-free until the final set and led all hitters with 12 kills and .500 hitting. Santa Clara got eight kills from Lindsy Davigeadono — last year's setter.

NOTES

In opening-night upsets, third-ranked Nebraska was swept by 16th-ranked Michigan in Omaha. The Huskers hadn't been swept since 2007. Pepperdine, which plays here in three weeks, swept 24th-ranked Colorado State. UC Irvine surprised sixth-ranked Cal, which plays here next week. New Mexico State of the WAC held off Southern Methodist 16-14 in the fifth. Fifth-ranked Stanford needed five to hold off LSU, but 12th-ranked USC lost to Michigan State in five.