FINDLAY - The tight, back-and-forth opening set between Calvert and Hopewell-Loudon might have had those in attendance at Findlay High thinking back to last year's five-set classic between the teams in tournament play.

At least, H-L coach Erin Dircksen said she and her team weren't forgetting their upset loss to the Senecas in last year's district semifinals, even though they beat them in straight sets in the regular season.

But after slipping away with a 25-23 win to start Saturday's Division IV district final, the Chieftains kicked into a higher gear and dispatched of Calvert, taking the final two sets 25-19, 25-12.

Second-ranked Hopewell-Loudon (24-1), which returned every player from last year's team, advances to its second regional in three seasons under Dircksen. The Chieftains will play in the first regional semifinal (6 p.m.) Thursday at Elida against Kalida, which downed Cory-Rawson in four sets to win the Lima District.

Calvert, which rode last year's win over H-L to its first district title in 26 years, and had upset No. 6 New Riegel to win sectionals, bowed out at 19-6.

"Calvert always shows up in tournament time, regardless of who they play," Dircksen said. "So, the girls knew balls were going to be thrown at them, they were going to get picked up a lot more than they did in the regular season, they were gonna try a bunch more stuff, which they did. All week long we prepared for that."

The Senecas certainly were scrappy in the first set, even after an early 5-1 lead when Brittany Egbert served back-to-back aces to put H-L ahead 8-7. The Chieftains couldn't open a three-point lead until it was 20-17.

Elizabeth Bentz's kill made it 23-20, but Calvert came back to tie when Bentz had two off-line attacks sandwiching Katie Gruss' serve that got flubbed.

After Dircksen called timeout, H-L ran a quick attack to Egbert, their 6-foot All-Ohioan who this week was named Midland Athletic League Player of the Year, and the senior's seventh kill at that point brought set point.

Calvert then blocked and dug out Egbert's next two spikes, but Bentz put away a crosscourt kill to end the set.

"Nervous, the first game; nervous a little bit in the second; third is when they really settled down," Dircksen said of her team. "They went back to their laid-back selves. You could feel the tension in the first, even into the second."

The second set had the makings of another close battle, before Brianna Richey slammed a kill off the Calvert block attempt to make it 7-4, putting herself on serve.

Richey's topspin-heavy jump serve proved troublesome for Calvert, leading to a flubbed reception and Bentz's kill of an overpass.

The lead grew to 12-4 before Calvert got back-to-back kills from Ali Mass on the outside, and Richey, Bentz and Egbert responded with their own slams to help push the margin to 16-6.

"We came out, and I think they had a different attitude that first game then they did the second and third," Calvert coach Pam Hart said. "As (the Chieftains) chipped away and added points on top of points, I think that kind of deflated us more.

"It's 25-23 in game one - OK, we're great, we're in it, just change a couple things, get a couple more balls to fall, maybe. Then we come out and game two, and I don't what the run they went on was, but it was ridiculous."

Calvert fought back to 22-19 on kill from Katie Gruss and had a chance to draw closer, but spikes from Mass and Conn sailed long, and on set point the Senecas got whistled for a net violation as they dug out Egbert's attack.

Alexis Creeger started game three with an ace, and Jessica Livesay added another ace that clipped the net, Maggie Yost got a popup block from a kill and Bentz and Egbert killed overpasses to help H-L open a 9-2 lead. The Senecas never got closer than five.

Just as her team fed off each other in the first game, Hart said the players couldn't pick each other up after that against H-L's aggressive service game.

"I think we were really focused and keyed in on those little things that we have to take care of, the first game," she said. "I guess it works good and bad for us: If we can get one person to start hitting, than everybody else steps up, but if one person shanks a pass, then everybody else ..."

Mass' 10 kills and 18 digs paced the Senecas in her final match, and Alexa Frank dished out 27 assists. Conn added nine kills and nine digs, Rachel Wickham 12 digs and Katie Klepper six kills.

Egbert finished with 16 kills and 14 blocks, and Richey tallied 11 kills, 26 digs and a pair of aces. Mary Ellen McAllister (19 assists, 3 aces) and Yost (12 assists) shared the setter duties, Bentz finished with eight kills and Livesay chipped in 14 digs.

Dircksen said her team's serving has been a case of season-long improvement.

"In the league we haven't traditionally been a great serving team, with a lot of aces and stuff like that," she said. "So, all year long it's been a goal to be better serving team and catch people off-guard right off the bat, and it's paid off. It's slowly come on, but you can see it now.

"Definitely, they got more aggressive, more confident; the nerves kind of went away."