WEXFORD — Being toppled before reaching the WPIAL finals last season sent Freeport girls volleyball coach Tom Phillips in search of an education.

He wanted the Yellowjackets to understand how to handle when things weren’t going well.

During a 3-1 win over South Fayette in the WPIAL Class AA semifinals Thursday night at North Allegheny High School, top-seeded Freeport showed it learned its lesson.

The Yellowjackets dropped the first set, 25-21, before winning the final three 25-13, 25-20, 25-15. Freeport, which advanced to the finals for the fifth time since 2009, will take on second-seeded West Shamokin Saturday at Baldwin High School.

The Yellowjackets, who won the WPIAL title in 2010 and 2013, were upset last year in the semifinals by Ford City.

“I think we learned from last year to respect our opponents,” Phillips said. “And I’m not saying we didn’t respect Ford City, I think we went in there overconfident. We were 21-0 and didn’t know how to lose. Once we started to lose, the wheels came off and we didn’t know how to fix it.”

Mending things against the fifth-seeded Lions (16-3) required Freeport settle down. Five attack errors put the Yellowjackets in a 10-2 hole in the first set.

South Fayette had seven different players register kills, led by five from Carly Kilgus.

It was a near repeat of the quarterfinals for Freeport, which fell behind 9-2 in the first set to Beaver before rallying to win 28-26.

That’s a pattern junior setter Maggie Ward wants to break.

“We need to learn to get comfortable from the start,” said Ward, who handed out 32 assists. “Because trust me I don’t want to do that on Saturday, my team doesn’t want to do that on Saturday, we’re not going to do that on Saturday. We’re going to come out stronger because we can’t get comfortable on Saturday.”

Freeport’s offense was rejuvenated behind the attack of senior outside hitter Zoe Pawlak, who finished with 19 kills and seven services.

“I was really trying to bring the energy tonight, because I know we needed it and especially after we lost the first game,” Pawlak said. “I’m glad I could bring that energy and they feed off it.”

The Yellowjackets’ defense also forced South Fayette to make more mistakes as the match wore on.

The Lions made 20 attack errors in the final three sets.

“Freeport played a much defensive game,” South Fayette coach Scott Sundgren said. “They have a nice block and they set up their defense nice around it. We weren’t able to find the floor as frequently.”

The Yellowjackets also had long stretches of dominance serving. In the fourth set, Morgan Ruppersberger was on the service line for a 9-0 run that broke a 10-all tie and put Freeport ahead.

Ruppersberger finished second for Freeport with 15 kills. Katie Zingaro also contributed five kills for the Yellowjackets (19-1).

“The thing is once we did settle down we started playing Freeport volleyball,” Phillips said.

The Yellowjackets hope playing that style will result in a third championship.

“We valued our opponents more this year,” Ward said. “We didn’t think they were going to lay down because we were the No. 1 seed. When we lost the first game we were like ‘OK, we have to go’. That’s what we did.”