La Reina’s 18 Aces Make It Look Easy : State championships: Hain helps serve up a three-set victory over Clairemont in first round.

Considering Clairemont High allowed three early aces to La Reina in the first round of the Division IV State volleyball championships, Alyssa Hain’s deadly jump-serve was about the last thing the Chiefs wanted to face.

But that’s what they got. Hain’s serving prowess, which included 10 aces, was symbolic of the Regents dominance Tuesday night as La Reina cruised to a 15-0, 15-2, 15-4 victory in a match played in under an hour.

On Saturday, fourth-seeded La Reina will face the winner of the Mayfield-Sierra match.

La Reina (20-2), appearing in its first State playoff match, outplayed Clairemont in every phase of the game. The Regents finished with 18 aces and held the Chiefs (20-7) to six kills for the match.

“We expected a much tougher match, this is the State playoffs,” Hain said. “We know the next one will not be as easy. I guess we can take this one as a gift.”

If La Reina had any State playoff jitters, they were quashed shortly into the first game. After several sideouts, La Reina scored four consecutive points, including two aces by Kylene Krol, and the rout was on.

“We had no nervous-type errors,” La Reina Coach Don Hyatt said. “I’m sure the 15-0 game helped eliminate those, too. The only mistakes we made were with players who aren’t used to playing with each other.”

Clairemont finally scored a point early in the second game on a La Reina hitting error but squandered away chances with three consecutive service errors. The Chiefs couldn’t even take advantage when La Reina served out of position and was called for a delay of game, turning the serve over to Clairemont.

By the start of the third game, Hyatt began to clear his bench, but the Regents were still effective. The match ended with an ace by freshman Erica Robbins, who was called up from the junior varsity for the playoffs.

La Reina had two hitting errors in the entire match.

Kylene Krol led La Reina with six kills. Hain had five kills and Renee Beck added three. Kristin Kruer had 10 digs for the Regents.