JEWELL – Alyssa Hegland began and ended the match with a handy-dandy service ace last night on Coach Jim Marsh Court.

What came in between? A whole lot more aces and not many – OK, not any – stressful moments for the South Hamilton volleyball team in its ninth consecutive victory.

Line-drive serves and powerful attacks from Ady Wintermote and Alyssa Hegland was again the recipe for success in a 3-0 sweep of Heart of Iowa Conference rival Saydel. The 25-10, 25-13, 25-6 trouncing took less than an hour to complete.

Eight players combined to pile up 21 aces against the over-matched Eagles. Anna Moss cranked out six, including four in a row during the third set. Hegland and Wintermote both smacked four, while Taylor Ratzke and Lily Skartvedt had two each.

Utilizing her rocket jump serve, Wintermote followed Moss with three consecutive aces in the third set.

The team’s ability to thrive from the service line comes from the freedom the players have to go on the attack, Hawks’ head coach Rusty Wintermote said.

“I let them be them,” he said. “If they feel their strength is to hit it hard, then I let them do that. Against a Nevada, or against a Roland-Story, we’ll need to come at them aggressively. But if they start serving it into the net, that’s when we’ll adjust what we’re doing.”

Saydel (0-8, 0-3 HOIC) led for a grand total of five of the 104 points played, all of them coming early in the second set. South Hamilton (11-4, 3-0 HOIC) scored five of the first six points in the first and third sets. An 8-0 run early in the final stanza turned out the lights on the Eagles.

On the defensive throughout, Saydel managed to hit the ball hard just twice, both of them coming in the third set.

That wasn’t a problem for the Hawks.

Ady Wintermote and Hegland were nearly unstoppable from the outside, as they combined for 21 kills. Wintermote laced five of her match-high 13 kills in the initial set, and she joined Hegland with four in set No. 2.

Ady Wintermote put up an unstoppable kill efficiency of .722. Hegland wasn’t exactly chopped liver either at .538

The Hawks were again without starting setter Alissa Moss, who watched from the bench with her left ankle in an air brace. But freshmen Lily Skartvedt and Taylor Volkmann filled in nicely and combined for 17 assists. Their play was improved from Tuesday’s win over PCM, Rusty Wintermote said, as was the team’s passing.

“We didn’t allow (Saydel) to get on any runs and the only way we dictated that is we got better passing from everybody,” he said. “Tuesday night we didn’t pass very well, so we needed to rebound there and we did that.”

Libero Anna Moss and Ady Wintermote both registered five digs. Hegland and Ratzke contributed four each.

South Hamilton is hopeful that Alissa Moss can return to the lineup on Tuesday when the team goes on the road to face HOIC favorite and top-ranked (Class 3A) Nevada. Moss injured her ankle during a 6-on-6 drill in practice on Monday.

“She had good mobility (yesterday), so we’ll see how Monday’s practice goes and then we’ll decide,” Rusty Wintermote said. “Hopefully we’ll have her back to set on Tuesday.”