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ASH DANIEL Special to The Roanoke Times

The Hidden Valley volleyball team celebrates defeating Salem in the Group AA semifinals Friday at the Siegel Center in Richmond. For more photos go to Swo-Co.com.

ASH DANIEL Special to The Roanoke Times

Hidden Valley celebrates its victory over Salem.

RICHMOND -- Apparently Hidden Valley and Salem insist on going the limit in their volleyball matches.

The three previous meetings followed that script, and the Group AA semifinal at VCU's Siegel Center didn't deviate from the theme.

Hidden Valley won 25-21, 22-25, 25-17, 15-25, 15-13 and will face Loudoun County at 3 p.m., today for the championship.

And that last step to was rather intense.

"I'm still shaking," Hidden Valley senior Eva Delaney said.

"Every single game we've played with Salem's been like that," Hidden Valley coach Carla Poff added. "Five games and close."

Of the four meetings this season, three of them have been decided by two points in Game 5.

"We've been in that situation and I knew it was gonna come down to a couple points and whoever played the hardest," Poff said.

For Delaney, what did it mean for her to get to this game?

"Everything," she said. "All four years, every year we've had a good team, but we've never been able to make it to Richmond."

Delaney finished with 36 assists and needs 20 more to reach 2,000 for her career.

Jessica Church had 27 digs, while Sam Klostermann and Tori Hodges recorded 15 and 11 kills, respectively, for Hidden Valley (23-4).

Salem didn't disappoint either.

Every time it seemed the Titans were going to pull away, Salem (22-4) rallied.

"I'm very proud of our kids for coming back and keep fighting," Spartans coach David Turk said.

"We really played not very well early on, and we struggled with our passing in particular and even with that, we gave ourselves a shot at winning."

His daughter, Rachel Turk, also praised her team's efforts.

"I think our girls did a really good job fighting for the last point. That was probably the scrappiest play of the whole game," she said.

Five games of intense play can take a toll on players, but senior Rachel Turk said it didn't really matter.

"It's always hard playing five matches," she said. "I think we've played enough this season to know how to fight through it. You can't just say, 'Yeah, we got tired,' because the other team had to play five matches too."

And while Salem's season is over, David Turk wouldn't let that diminish what his team had accomplished.

"We've had one heck of a season," he said. "With this group, we've got six seniors on this team. They've come a long, long way over the four years. They should be awfully proud of themselves."

Kayla Paxton's 14 kills and Kelsey Bradshaw's 13 led Salem.

Poff knows what to expect in the championship match.

"When you get to a state championship it's anybody's game," she said.

"The last couple of games we've been focusing on our side of the net, our team, and that's what we're gonna continue to do for tomorrow."