La Pietra made quick work of Hawai'i Prep, 25-14, 25-13, last night at Jim Alegre Gymnasium and advanced to today's quarterfinal round of the New City Nissan/HHSAA Girls Volleyball Division II State Championships.

The Lady Panthers (10-9), the third seed from the Interscholastic League of Honolulu, will face Kalaheo today at 7:30 p.m. at Radford. Hawai'i Prep (11-7), the second seed from the Big Island Interscholastic Federation, plays Hilo in a consolation match at 4:30 p.m. The loser is eliminated.

Ashanti Shih and Kalena Frank had seven kills apiece for La Pietra, which beat Maryknoll in an ILH elimination game Saturday to qualify for the state tournament.

"Ashanti and Lei (Marple) and Kalena have been real consistent the last four matches," said La Pietra head coach Tony McInerny. Marple, a senior setter, had two aces, and her jump serve gave HPA trouble throughout the match.

"We served really, really well," said McInerny. "We've been working on that. Every team we play ... not in their rhythm. We served excellent tonight and I think that's what had to do with a lot of our success."

Jordan Schroer and Kate McGrath also had a pair of aces each for the Lady Panthers.

Consecutive kills by Frank, Marple and Isabella Gee gave La Pietra a 10-4 lead in Game 1.

HPA head coach Sharon Peterson called a timeout in hopes of slowing the Lady Panthers, but to no avail. A Ka Makani hitting error followed a double block by Marple and Shih to extend the lead to 12-4. Shih's kill that made it 14-4 capped a 7-0 run.

HPA struggled to get a block up on La Pietra's quicker attacks. A pair of kills by Frank were sandwiched between two kills by Schroer to make it 22-10. Ka Makani tried to rally as Kela Fitzgerald put down one of her team-high six kills, but HPA couldn't string together many points and Shih put away game point on a cross-court kill.

La Pietra used a 5-0 start to run away with Game 2.

McInerny feels his squad can compete with the OIA champion Mustangs.

"I don't know much about them, but if we play like how we played tonight, we'll be right in there," he said.

In other first-round matches last night, Moloka'i defeated Kaimuki, 25-22, 25-20; Waimea defeated Wai'anae, 25-18, 25-13, and Sacred Hearts defeated Hilo, 25-17, 25-19.