WEXFORD The momentum was oscillating between Freeport and Hopewell.

Fortunately for the Yellowjackets it ended up with them.

Freeport had dropped the fourth set to force a deciding fifth set in the WPIAL Class AA semifinals Thursday night.

With a 3-2 lead, the Yellowjackets scored eight of the next nine points to take control and to come away with the 19-25, 25-17, 25-18, 20-25, 15-11 victory at North Allegheny.

The win puts Freeport (20-0) into the WPIAL championship for the second consecutive year. The squad will face Indiana, which defeated last year's champion, West Allegheny, at 4 p.m. Saturday at Franklin Regional.

“This was a big step for us. There's a lot of emotion,” said Freeport coach Tom Phillips. “Against Hopewell, it was like David and Goliath.”

“A lot of people didn't give us a chance. We got a good, solid defensive effort after the first game,” Phillips added.

In that first game, the Vikings (14-3) used a 7-1 run to take a 15-9 lead en route to the win, then grabbed a 10-5 advantage in the second set, prompting Phillips to call time out.

“We needed to turn it around, to get back to basics,” Phillips said. “We were solid after that.”

Freeport eventually took a 15-14 lead on a Rachel Grubbs kill. Then, after Hopewell scored the next point, the Yellowjackets took the lead for good on an Ashley Sample kill.

That was followed by six consecutive service points by Freeport's Taylor Schrecengost to even the score.

The momentum continued for Freeport as Anna Christy opened the third game with 10 consecutive service points.

“I might have done that in a section game, but not like this in a playoff game,” said Christy. “We kept putting it on them.”

“Once we got that swing, we were more confident. I told the team that momentum is what this game is all about,”Phillips said.

Hopewell did trim the deficit to four at 14-10 but the Yellowjackets rebounded to earn the victory.

“Ten points in rally scores is huge,” said Vikings coach Terry Borkovic. “To come back the way we did showed character. It's hard to come back from that.”

Still, Hopewell did rally in the fourth set. After the ninth tie at 15-all, it scored on a Freeport net fault and a Courtney Kress kill to take a 17-15 lead.

The Yellowjackets couldn't score consecutive points to climb back the rest of the set.

With the tide shifting back to Hopewell, Phillips had to get his team on the offensive.

The key? Being aggressive.

“I told them in Game 4 not to let it go to Game 5,” said Phillips. “We had a couple of pass errors, a couple of service errors.

“In Game 5, you have to come out strong and really aggressive, and that's what we did,” he added.

After spotting the Vikings the first point, Lauren Frazetta scored, followed by a Hopewell shot out of bounds and another Christy ace to give Freeport a 3-1 lead, one it never surrendered.

“We're a pretty young team and we start a lot of underclassmen,” said Christy. “Obviously, it's not any other game, but you tell them to treat it like it is.”

Sample finished with 20 kills while Grubbs and Schrecengost had eight kills apiece.

Hopewell received 15 kills from Kress, seven blocks from Shatori Walker-Kimbrough and 46 assists from Catey Burget.