LAS VEGAS » Hawaii’s final Western Athletic Conference volleyball championship might not have been its prettiest, but it was definitely one of its grittiest.

Going all in on defense, the third-ranked Rainbow Wahine swept New Mexico State 25-22, 25-18, 25-20 on Wednesday in the WAC tournament final at Orleans Arena.

Tournament MVP Kanani Danielson anchored the assault with the 46th double-double of her All-American career. She collected 17 digs and 10 kills and was basically a force of volleyball nature, as she was in Tuesday’s comeback win over Fresno State.

The Kamehameha graduate teamed with freshman Jane Croson, who had a match-high 16 kills, to give Hawaii (28-1) a huge edge on the left side over the Aggies (23-9). NMSU’s lefts hit a combined negative .013, taking more than half the swings (64) and getting just 11 balls down inbounds.

The Wahine stuffed WAC Freshman of the Year Meredith Hays, who had eight kills and nine errors in 43 swings. Stephanie Ziegler, another first-year starter, never really got started.

Hawaii took three more swings than the Aggies, who started four seniors, and had 18 more kills. UH hit just .149 — less than half its average — but it didn’t matter because almost nothing NMSU sent over went down.

The Wahine gobbled up 56 digs, anchored by Danielson and junior libero Emily Maeda, who made her first start in more than a month after shining in reserve Tuesday.

"The main thing was we stayed disciplined with the scouting report that coach Scott (Wong) laid out for us," Danielson said. "We studied it day in and day out. We already knew what we were coming up against because they have hitters that are not afraid to challenge our block. They did damage to us the other two times we played. Tonight, if I was back there, I didn’t want the ball ending on our side. I just wanted to take away their tendencies."

Mostly, she and Maeda roamed for NMSU’s high shots, which Danielson characterized as "their only option left."

Meanwhile, Croson began with a loud bang — she and Danielson each had six kills in the critical first set — and never backed off.

"They had a lot of incentive to beat us tonight and they were very fired up, so emotionally, especially after last night when we had to go five, I felt it was really important to stay with them early and we did," UH coach Dave Shoji said. "Then the rest seemed to fall into place."

Shoji started senior Alex Griffiths to take passing pressure off Croson. With senior hitter Chanteal Satele still weak from illness, he also started freshman Kalei Adolpho in the middle, moving Emily Hartong to the right. Adolpho got five kills and four of UH’s eight blocks.

"That was how it ended last night, so we felt good about the lineup, especially with Emily playing really well," Shoji said. "She really rallied us last night and steadied out our passing. Emily and Kalei collectively were effective last night. Why change that?"

He used 13 players and all made their mark on NMSU. After the first set was tied for the eighth and final time at 15, UH went on a 7-2 run and New Mexico State never really recovered.

"We came out really prepared," Maeda said. "We knew we didn’t want a repeat of last night so we knew we had to stay focused on our assignments. We knew it would be a serve-pass battle with the other team and we stayed focused on that. That was the big difference from last night."

Before a boisterously pro-Hawaii crowd of 2,355, UH looked like the team that beat NMSU in 87 minutes 11 days ago, not the one that needed 2 hours, 30 minutes in Las Cruces, N.M., five weeks ago and 2:22 Tuesday against Fresno.

"When you’ve got a great ball-control team like Hawaii that plays that hard … we’re just not up to that caliber defensively, so those long rallies, we lost too many of them," NMSU coach Mike Jordan said.

When NMSU rallied late in the first, tiny UH setter Mita Uiato shut it down when she pushed a ball down against 6-foot-2 Michelle Kuester. In the midst of six straight Hawaii points early in the second, the 5-10 Danielson buried a ball over Kelsey Brennan and Desiree Scott, both 6-2.

Hawaii took the lead for good in the third at 4-2 and from there it was showtime. One point ended with three Wahine sprawled on the floor, and on another Danielson put a ball down from the back row and slid safely into the back of Brittany Hewitt’s legs at the net.

"They are always the best team we play every year — including when we’ve played Stanford or Texas — Hawaii is always the best team we ever play at taking out-of-system swings," Jordan said. "They seem to be able to set the ball from anywhere on the floor, sometimes off the floor, and still get a swing at it. They just pressure you so much."

Hewitt got the last two kills to give the Wahine their 13th WAC championship since joining the conference in 1996. In those 16 seasons, they went 270-7 against WAC opponents, and beat NMSU in five of the last six finals.

Notes

If Hawaii gets seeded (top 16) for the NCAA tournament, which will be announced Sunday, it will host a subregional for the first time since 2003. Because of football, the matches will be next Thursday and Friday (Dec. 1-2). Tickets would go on sale Monday at 9 a.m. Season-ticket holders who preordered tickets would be able to start picking them up at noon Monday.

NO. 3 HAWAII DEF. NEW MEXICO STATE 25-22, 25-18, 25-20