H-L sweeps St. Joe to get another shot at rival NR

BASCOM – Sometimes when things are going your way, everything works right.Hopewell-Loudon sprinted away with the first set and had things rolling again when Paige Hoover retrieved a ball over her shoulders, it tipped the net, and trickled over for a kill.It was that kind of night for the Chieftains.Hoover had a big night serving for H-L as the Chieftains snapped a four-match losing streak and made quick work of Fremont St. Joseph Central Catholic 25-15, 25-14, 25-15 in a Division IV sectional semifinal on Tuesday."She has been handling stuff as our junior varsity libero this year," said H-L coach Andrew Stalker of Hoover. "I told her I wanted to see her on the varsity team. If she wanted it, she had to go get it. I wasn't going to force her to."She answered it and she has been doing great. She was a big reason of why we were successful tonight."Hopewell-Loudon improved to 14-9 overall and faces New Riegel at 5 p.m. Thursday in a sectional final at NR."We had some different girls in the lineup," Stalker said. "We have been going through and making sure that we are doing what we have been preaching the whole year and that is giving full effort and being scrappy. We are really just trying to be an annoying defensive team."The Chieftains had faced and defeated the Crimson Streaks in two earlier matches this season. H-L won 25-20, 25-21, 25-13 at home on Aug. 24 before a 27-25, 17-25, 25-21, 24-26, 15-4 marathon win in Fremont on Sept. 16."I have tried not to use it all year, but it is what it is - we have a very young team," SJCC coach Paul Grahl said. "We play four freshmen, two sophomores, and only two seniors. Only one got considerable time last year. Hopewell is very senior-laden. They are a quality team. I think a little bit of our youth showed up with the unforced errors."This time, the Streaks played relatively well over the first portion of the opening set. SJCC twice built a four-point lead, the last time coming after Emma Kelbley's kill made it 12-8, but that's when Hopewell-Loudon kicked it into another gear.A rotation error and kill by Megan Kreais sliced the lead in half. After a double-hit error on the Chieftains, an error and rotation error tied the set. Another kill by Kreais gave H-L the lead.Those four points were just the beginning for the Chieftains. Kreais and Kendall Eilrich each put down kills to make it 17-13. Blasts from Abbe Beidelschies and Eilrich extended the margin to 20-13. Hoover - who served the whole way - added two aces to make it 24-13 and wrap up the run of 14 straight points.SJCC (6-17) got kills from Avery Fleming and Taylor Ohms, but Isabelle Beidelschies slammed the door shut with one final kill to give H-L the early lead."The effort was not where wanted it," said Stalker of a timeout early in the set. "I told them there were plenty of girls on the bench and if they didn't want it, those girls do. They answered the call. It changed all the momentum and we rode it the rest of the way."The Chieftains carried the momentum into Set 2, leading wire to wire. The margin was just 7-5 when Olivia Bishop and Anna Daniel each tallied kills around an ace from Grace Dohanyos. The Streaks won the next two points to stay within 12-7, but Hoover served up an ace, Kreais tallied a kill, and Hoover's kill Houdini-style made it 16-8.The lead never dipped under seven points the rest of the way. Two more kills from Kreais - who had a match-high 15 kills - gave the Chieftains a 2-0 lead."Offensively, we were way smarter than we have been in recent matches," Stalker said. "What has been killing us all year is unforced errors. As we went into this match, all we did was preach being smart and making them earn everything."SJCC jumped out to a 3-0 lead in Set 3 before a kill by Kreais gave Hoover the serve. She served up a pair of aces en route to giving Hopewell-Loudon a lead it would never surrender.Once again it was a big run in the middle of the set that made the difference. This time the Chieftains used a 7-1 sprint to open a 13-6 advantage. The Streaks cut back as close as 14-10, but Abbe Beidelschies and Kreais smacked kills to jumpstart a 5-1 run. Later, four errors on SJCC and a kill from Abbe Beidelschies gave H-L the win in less than a hour."It just snowballed the other way in that first set and then it probably bled into that second set," Grahl said. "We had a few unforced errors in that second set too."Eilrich and Daniel each tallied eight kills while Hoover added 15 digs."Our offense is very streaky," Stalker said. "When we are riding that hot streak, we have to go. We can't give up an unforced error to end it because we don't have the big hitters. We don't have the crazy offensive talent and ability to out-power teams."Kreais had 15 kills for the Chieftains, while Eilrich and Anna Daniel both had eight kills and Hoover made 15 digs.Hopewell-Loudon faces a New Riegel team that swept the Chieftains in the regular season. New Riegel won 25-23, 22-25, 18-25, 25-14, 18-16 in Bascom on Sept. 13 before sweeping H-L, 25-14, 25-18, 25-10 last Tuesday in New Riegel."The losing streak was weighing on them a lot," Stalker said. "They kept bringing it up and I told them what they needed to do to get out of it. They went out and executed."