In one breath, New Mexico State coach Mike Jordan called the last volleyball meeting between his team and fifth-ranked Hawaii a "blowout," but it came with benefits.

In the next breath, Jordan characterized the 80-minute mashing in Las Cruces a month ago as a "catalyst for making changes that needed to be made."

"It said we needed to do something different," Jordan went on. "So we are."

The Aggies (15-9) have not lost to a Western Athletic Conference team since, keeping a step — a misstep, if you are the Rainbow Wahine — behind UH at 9-1.

The teams play tonight at 5 p.m. at the Stan Sheriff Center in a match that could all but clinch the regular-season title for Hawaii (20-1, 10-0 WAC) along with the No. 1 seed at next month’s WAC tournament. The Wahine have defeated New Mexico State in the last four tournament finals.

NMSU hasn’t been blowing anybody out since the teams met a month ago. It has separated itself from an extremely competitive middle of the WAC pack with an ability to finish and Kayleigh Giddens, WAC player of the week three of the last five weeks. The senior hitter has taken nearly 1,000 swings — no other Aggie has half that — and is ninth nationally in kills at 4.79 a set.

"We’ve got to stop Giddens, that’s one priority," UH coach Dave Shoji said. "We can’t let (Whitney) Woods get hot because she’s real streaky. That’s another priority. But it usually comes down to serving and passing, so we want to win that battle."

The match in Las Cruces was shockingly one-sided. Even more shocking, the Aggies never blocked a ball and were outdug 48-27. The Wahine, with Brittany Hewitt hitting a school-record .917, ran away at the end of the first set and took NMSU’s swagger with them.

"We have to block and defend better," says Jordan. "If we get an occasional stop and sideout at a high rate, we can stay in the match. A lot has to change.

"This actually means something. It’s good, it does mean something. A month ago, nobody would have laid money on us being unbeaten aside from the one loss to them. Neither would I."

Even now, the coach calls his team "a little Jekyll and Hyde." It went five with Boise State and Idaho. Giddens is hitting .267, but Hawaii held her to .119 and Woods, the Aggies’ other outside threat, hit .000 that night.

"We’re better than we were a month ago," says Jordan, who has taken NMSU to five of the last seven NCAA tournaments. "A little more consistent. If you look at the scores — we’re 9-1, but we drop sets here and there, typically when we’re not defending and digging very well."

The lineup is settled, with last year’s four All-WAC performers in place and Kelsi Phillips and freshman Rocio Gutierrez playing major roles now. The Aggies have handed Hawaii half its four regular-season losses — ever — in the WAC. The last came here, more than two years ago. The first came a year before and ended the longest conference winning streak in NCAA history at 114 regular-season matches.

Now, the Wahine have a 35-match conference winning streak, among the best in the nation. They have won their last 15 and haven’t dropped a set since Sept. 11.

They are playing now for a high NCAA seed and simply to get better, blasting every WAC team in their way so far.

Maybe that will end tonight.

Maybe not.

Louisiana Tech (11-15, 0-9) comes in tomorrow night for a 7 p.m. match. The Techsters fell in four yesterday at Houston Baptist, a private Division I school of 2,500 that competes in the Great West Conference.

Hawaii plays a nonconference match against Hawaii Pacific on Friday, after an alumnae exhibition. Its final home match, and senior night for Dani Mafua and Elizabeth Ka’aihue, is Nov. 18 against Idaho.