FINDLAY - It was 3-0 in the second game, but the demeanor of Hopewell-Loudon's players wouldn't reveal whether the Chieftains were ahead or behind.

That was left to coach Erin Dircksen, who, for the record, wasn't exactly pleased to see her second-ranked Chieftains trailing after steamrolling Riverdale, 25-12, in the first game.

While she briefly stewed, her ever-even-keeled players simply played on, using a Brittany Egbert kill to kickstart a 5-0 run to regain a lead they never relinquished in a 25-15 win before holding off the Falcons, 25-20, in the third set Tuesday in a Division IV district semifinal.

"I'm the one that gets nervous and more anxious about (Riverdale) getting the lead, and they're the ones that calm me down because they don't show any emotion, they don't get over-excited," Dircksen said. "They just go in and do their jobs, and it's worked for them all season long and I'm glad that they just keep that same momentum and that type of attitude."

That attitude sets up a rematch at 3 p.m. Saturday at Findlay High with Calvert, which fell to H-L this year in Midland Athletic League play after ousting the Chieftains in last year's district semifinals.

"Every time we play Calvert, you never know what you're going to get on both sides of the court," Dircksen said. "You know that both teams are going to show up, but it's just who's going to show up more and have that 'I want more' attitude?

"That's something I think the girls were wanting, I think Calvert was wanting," she said "It'll be a good game."

That's how each of Tuesday's sets started out before H-L (23-1) took control.

The Chieftains combined three Riverdale hitting errors with kills by Egbert and Brianna Richey and a Maggie Yost ace to turn a 2-all tie into a 9-2 lead. The closest Riverdale got after that was four points (12-8) before H-L rattled of the game's final 6-0 points.

The Falcons (17-7) looked to turn things around in the second game, sandwiching kills by 6-foot southpaw Amanda Wetherill around a Chieftain error for the quick 3-0 lead.

But Egbert just as quickly got H-L back on track and the Chieftains only allowed two more Wetherill kills in the second set. Wetherill finished the night with nine kills and four blocks, but Dircksen said her Chieftains weren't intimidated by the hard-swinging lefty, since they face Egbert every day in practice.

"Brittany's a good practice for anyone we're going to see - No. 1, taller [than many hitters]; No. 2, she's going to be able to run to the ball from side to side - so our girls are kind of used to that. The only difference was that she's a lefty and we had to pay attention to where her arm swings were going to be because it was going to be the opposite of what we're used to," Dircksen said.

Wetherill's final kill in the second game cut H-L's deficit to 15-12, but the Chieftains refused to surrender momentum. Richey hammered one of her seven kills, Jessica Livesey belted one of her three aces in the match and H-L took advantage of a net violation to forge ahead 18-12.

That lead eventually got to 23-13 before the game ended on Meghan Scherger's kill for a 2-0 H-L advantage.

For Riverdale, the challenges were multifaceted.

"We're young, so that's worked against us the whole time. Over half our team had never been in this type of a tournament before, so that was difficult for us confidence-wise, mentally and physically as well, because we don't have as many athletes as they have," Riverdale coach Jenny Young said.

"Once they see the points stack up, they see defeat in the end," she said.

Hopewell-Loudon never trailed in the third game, using small runs to gain leads of 10-5 and 16-8.

Scherger put H-L at game point (24-15) with a kill, but Riverdale rattled off five points before stuffed a spike by Wetherill to end the match.

Egbert paced H-L with 13 kills and 11 blocks and Mary Ellen McAllister tossed up 13 assists. Alexis Creeger came up with 12 digs, Yost added 11 digs, Scherger slammed five kills and Richey chipped in three aces and 10 digs.

Wetherill also tallied eight digs for the Falcons and Ashley Fox turned in nine assists and eight digs, but Young said Riverdale just didn't have an answer for H-L's depth and experience, especially when playing from behind.

"Against any team it's tough because you're constantly playing catch-up and mentally it's hard on you. But against this team, when you know they're going to make very few mistakes, it's even tougher; you know that to get back into the game, you're counting on them to make a few mistakes," she said.

"Pretty much everyone on their team can hit, so they had a lot of hitters coming at us; they came quick and it went down fast, so we weren't able to read their shoulders when we got the block up there," Young said. "And then their defense is good, they don't let anything drop."