LAS VEGAS » In a place far, far away, where all seems possible and all volleyball fans seem to be rooting for Hawaii, the third-ranked Rainbow Wahine rolled past Idaho and into tonight’s Western Athletic Conference Tournament final.

UH beat up on the Vandals, 25-11, 25-21, 25-16, last night before an Orleans Arena crowd of 2,484. It felt like a home game for Hawaii and that came as no surprise. At a hotel-casino venue suddenly overflowing with green people — or at least folks dressed in green, many wearing rainbow-colored knit caps — a pre-match reception put on by the UH Alumni Las Vegas Chapter drew some 700.

"It was amazing to see everybody, meet everybody," senior Elizabeth Ka’aihue said. "I thought it was just something in a back room."

In contrast, about half that many watched the beginning of the first semifinal, which third-seeded Utah State won in five over second-seeded New Mexico State.

The Wahine will play USU in tonight’s final. It will be broadcast live at 4:30 p.m. on ESPNU and KKEA-1420 AM. Hawaii (28-1) is going after its 13th consecutive WAC championship.

It comes in fully loaded, winner of its past 62 sets and 23 matches. It has not lost to a WAC team since Oct. 12, 2008. It hasn’t lost a WAC tournament match in 13 years.

"They are a consistent team," said Idaho coach Debbie Buchanan, who has just one senior. "They don’t make a ton of errors, and, for a game of momentum that can change pretty easily, they are composed and just stay in there. They are a very composed team."

Her team all but watched in awe in an opening set that lasted just 20 minutes. The Wahine did not have a hitting error until their 29th swing. By then, they led 19-8.

Then it got interesting, for about 25 minutes. The Vandals (14-15) hung on and hung around in the second set. After calling time with an 11-7 deficit, they chipped away and finally tied it at 20.

"It was a little complacency," said Ka’aihue, who gathered 22 digs in the match — more than one every 4 minutes. "The passing was off so we couldn’t run the offense. I take that."

"We also couldn’t get a block on the right," said teammate Chanteal Satele, who hit .619 on an error-free 13-for-21. "I take that one."

They got no argument from UH coach Dave Shoji, who called his team’s blocking "tragic" and its effort uninspired, particularly after the opening set. He put part of the blame on a one-sided win over Idaho just five days ago.

Hawaii scored five of the last six to win the second, with Kanani Danielson contributing two kills and a stuff. She would finish with a match-high 18 kills on .357 hitting, but took twice as many swings as any other Wahine, which also didn’t please Shoji.

"Our offense was never really in sync," he said. "We relied on too much Kanani and Chanteal hitting over the block or putting the ball down with two blockers on them. That’s not how we’re going to beat some good teams in the playoffs.

"I just have higher expectations about each player. We want to be sharp and I didn’t think we were ever sharp. We overpowered them, but we should."

The final set was also "not sharp," but also not close. UH finished with four reserves on the floor, including Alexis Forsythe, who sat out last week with a sprained ankle. Backup Kristiana Tuaniga got the final kill.

In the first semifinal, Utah State scored six of the last seven points to upset New Mexico State, 25-23, 20-25, 25-21, 22-25, 16-14. The match lasted 2 hours and 27 minutes.

USU (23-8), which starts four seniors, will play in the final for the first time since 2005 — its first year in the conference. The Aggies had not won a tournament match since, while NMSU (18-13) had lost to Hawaii in the last four tournament finals.

Utah State racked up 20 blocks, with Katie Astle getting 10 and Shantell Durrant nine. Liz McArthur had 19 kills and Josselyn White 16.

Seniors Kayleigh Giddens (29 kills) and Whitney Woods (18) led New Mexico State in their final matches.

Utah State won its first 11 this season, then went 7-8 before winning its last five, including a sweep at NMSU last week.

"The season is long and it’s been a grind," Utah coach Grayson DuBose. "It’s hard to win volleyball games and it’s hard to win a bunch of them. We were on that nice little run and then just a grind.

"I think our league is better than people give us credit for. I think it’s good. The Big West beats the snot out of each other and everybody says they’re so good. Our league does the same and everybody says you guys are lousy. That’s not right."