HAYFIELD — A Hayfield freshman used a lopsided match as a chance to try out a new serving style and it worked out pretty well as the Vikings swept La Crescent (0-15 overall) 25-15, 25-12, 25-14 in Hayfield Monday.

Dani Wagner, a freshman in her first year of varsity volleyball, debuted a jump serve that led to seven aces, and she also put in four kills and two solo blocks.

“I work on it in practice, but this was the first time I used it in a game. It felt better than usual tonight,” said Wagner, who served three straight aces to make it 19-6 in the final game.

Hayfield head coach Deb Harvey said that the serve started as a curiosity and may now be a weapon down the stretch of the season.

“At first it started as a casual thing, then it was like ‘wow, that’s a pretty good jump serve.’ It’s something we wanted to try tonight and maybe we’ll see it again,” Harvey said. “Dani’s quick, she’s dynamic and she’s such a good athlete. She’s all ready a good all around player and she’s going to be one of the great ones I think.”

Wagner also had six digs while playing in the back row for the first time this season.

While she’s playing well for a freshman, Wagner is getting plenty of help from her teammates on and off the court.

“She’s surrounded by a very team oriented group of girls and she’s got some good senior girls around her,” Harvey said. “They’re all supportive of each other and it doesn’t always happen that way.”

Abby Blanchard led the Vikings (12-7 overall, 6-4 HVL) with nine kills.

Hayfield led 8-2 to start the second game after Hannah Wiltgen served three aces in a stretch and it jumped to a 10-3 lead in the third game after McCayla Thoe served a pair of aces.

But not everything went the Vikings’ way on Monday.

“We made some unforced errors on easy balls,” Harvey said. “Hopefully we got those out of our system and we’ll have to be sharper and quicker tomorrow (against Zumbrota/Mazeppa).”

Hayfield stats: Alyssa Selk, 11 digs; Dani Wagner, 7 aces, 4 kills, 6 digs, 2 solo blocks; Liz Ristau, 6 kills, 1 block; Molly Streightiff, 3 aces, 12 assists, 3 kills, 4 digs, 2 blocks; Abby Blanchard, 9 kills, 7 digs, 3 blocks; Katie Miner, 4 kills, 1 block; Jaide Ryks, 2 aces, 5 digs; McCayla Thoe, 2 aces; Hannah Wiltgen, 2 aces 3 assists