VOLLEYBALL FESTIVAL: LA REINA DUO IS SET TO PART WAYS.

Byline: Matt Kredell Staff Writer

SACRAMENTO - Ashlie Hain has been setting Jennifer Ryan for six years. But with their high school careers now below the horizon, the La Reina High of Thousand Oaks teammates are playing together for the last time at the week-long Volleyball Festival.

Hain and Ryan began playing together at La Reina in seventh grade (La Reina goes from seventh to 12th). The past four years, they have played club volleyball for Sports Shack in Beverly Hills.

Many of the Sports Shack girls have played together a long time, but none more so than Hain and Ryan.

Both started for La Reina as freshmen and decided to remain teammates during the summer, making a joint decision to play for Sports Shack. Playing together year-round improved their connection, according to La Reina coach Don Hyatt.

``They'd come back each year and you could see the improvement,'' he said. ``It's going to be different for each of them because Ashlie has set up Jen for so long.''

Ryan, the 2000 Daily News Player of the Year, will play at Santa Clara next year. Hain is moving on to UC Irvine.

``We have a tremendous recruiting class and she's the cornerstone,'' Irvine coach Charlie Brandt, who also coaches the Orange County team that beat Sports Shack Wilson in the Festival final last year, said of Hain. ``I like it a lot better when she's on my side.''

The Volleyball Festival, the nation's biggest volleyball tournament, is the girls' last chance to play together. After losing in the CIF state championship, they hope to cap their juniors careers with a win in Friday's championship game at UC Davis.

``We try not to let the emotion get in the way,'' Hain said.

Set up by her teammate once again, Ryan finished: ``But it's in the back of our minds.''

--Perfect 10: Sports Shack Wilson won three matches Wednesday to improve to 10-0. The team swept all 20 games of its best-two-of-three matches.

All teams are gunning for the tournament's top-seeded entry but none have given Sports Shack much of a challenge. Their toughest match of the tournament was the day's last, against No. 15 Asics 18, the highest seed Sports Shack had faced.

With games played to 25 (except a third game that, if necessary, is to 15), Sports Shack won the first game 25-22 and was up just one late in the second before Ryan closed out the match with a spike to win 25-21.

``All games are really tight when teams are shooting for you,'' Sports Shack coach Tim Jensen said. ``Everyone stepped up to make big plays.''

Sports Shack advanced to today's playoffs. Only 16 of 253 teams made it to the top bracket.

--Long road: Sports Shack Dave, the club's second team, entered the day as the 20th seed but dug itself a hole after losing to 42nd-seed Kern River Brandy. The team was relegated to the path of the 42nd seed, needing to win four games in a row Wednesday night in order to make today's playoffs.

Sports Shack Dave lost the second game in a heartbreaker, exchanging points until finally falling 29-27 (the final margin has to be by two).

The girls rebounded to win their next two matches and stay alive heading into two late games.

Cara Quebert of La Reina, Brenn Larson of Westlake, Ashley Trine of Chaminade of West Hills and Nena Silyegovic of Royal of Simi Valley are local girls on Sports Shack's second team, consisting of players who just finished their junior years.

--Also falling: After upsetting Rose City Ohana of Portland, Ore., in three games Tuesday, Thunder 18 Mizuno of Thousand Oaks dropped their first match Wednesday to another Portland team.

Thunder, originally seeded 36th, had moved up to take Rose City's 16th spot. But Wednesday's early loss put them into 30th and a loss in the next game ended hopes to get into the top bracket.