ELIDA - Hopewell-Loudon coach Erin Dircksen has said her team has made great strides in its service game throughout the season, and the results have shown more and more during the Chieftains' tournament run.

But she couldn't have anticipated what transpired Thursday in the Division IV regional semifinals.

Kalida never found a handle on H-L's serve, as the Chieftains tallied 14 aces and opened leads of 9-0, 9-2 and 10-0 in the respective sets on their way to a 25-8, 25-12, 25-19 whipping at Elida Fieldhouse.

After winning its 24th in a row, second-ranked Hopewell-Loudon (25-1) will face 14th-ranked Columbus Grove (22-3), a 27-25, 25-18, 25-18 winner over Antwerp in Thursday's second semifinal, Saturday at noon. A win over the Bulldogs would give the Chieftains their first state tournament berth since a run of five straight state titles ended in 2001.

The 14 aces only begin to tell the story, as Kalida (17-7) also had multiple overpasses in receiving and many other times had to settle for a freeball after the set.

"They couldn't run an offense, because they couldn't get to the ball past the 10-foot line," Dircksen said. "We missed four serves, which I don't like, but we had none in the first set.

"The last couple years we've ranked near the bottom of the league in serving. It's something we've stressed all year, and it's paid off."

Hopewell-Loudon was more than happy to take advantage of Kalida's stumbling ways. With Alexis Creeger opening on serve, Brittany Egbert had four kills including a block, Creeger served an ace and Kalida had three errors and called two timeouts before the Wildcats scored their first point.

Elizabeth Bentz tip-killed an overpass and Maggie Yost followed with three aces to make it 13-3, and three straight kills from Brianna Richey, another killed overpass by Egbert and a Jessica Livesay ace made it 18-4.

Egbert finished with half of her match-high 14 kills in the first set, which Richey polished off with a pair of jump serves for aces.

"I work on that every practice," Richey said of her topspin-laced serve that produced four aces. "A lot of girls have been working on (the serve). One of the strong points of our team is we have great serves most of the time."

Four more Egbert kills, including another overpass, and four more Kalida errors made it 9-2 in the second.

Kalida stayed within 13-6, but Emily Turnwald followed her tip kill with a serve into the net, putting Richey back on serve. Her untouched ace inside the back line started another run, which Meghan Scherger finished by killing an overpass for a 21-6 lead.

"How many times did you see us not run an offense because we couldn't receive," Kalida coach Jeremy Stober said. "We had girls that needed to step up and didn't step up.

"We've seen teams like that (as good as H-L), but we didn't execute. We needed to get them out of their system a lot more."

Another Creeger ace started the third, and Egbert (9 blocks) and Yost (4 aces) had three kills apiece before Kalida got its first point on Egbert's freeball into the net.

The Wildcats fought back as Julia Fuerst had four kills in an 8-1 run to slice the deficit to 18-15. Turnwald's set kill to the corner made it 20-17 before Richey pounded two kills and Egbert served an ace to push the margin to 24-17. Richey's tip on an ill-timed attack fell amongst the Kalida defense to end the match.

Dircksen said the team has worked hard of late to get more consistent power out of Richey's attacks.

"The past three days we worked on ball control and timing, to get her approach down," she said. "We shortened the height on her sets, so she didn't have to worry about timing."

Richey finished with seven kills and 18 digs, Scherger contributed six kills, Mary McAllister distributed 18 assists and Creeger collected 19 digs for the Chieftains, whom Dircksen thinks still haven't played their best match.

In addition to the third-game hiccups, they gave Kalida two points in the first set by having two players bump into each other.

"It could've been a little cleaner," Dircksen said. "We're still not there yet, as evidenced by the third game. They just relaxed the third game and were laid back."

Fuerst's six kills led Kalida, followed by five kills and seven assists from Turnwald and four kills from Trisha Horstman.