Staff photo / Preston Byers Hubbard’s Kenna Killin (23) Aubrey Middlestead (14), Morgan Thompson (26) and Layla Songer celebrate the Eagles’ district semifinal win vs. Woodridge on Monday at Perry High School.

PERRY — After upsetting the top seed in its district last week, Hubbard secured a spot in the Division IV, Northeast 3 district final with a sweep of Woodridge on Monday in Perry.

The 14th-seeded Eagles, who beat No. 5 Jefferson Area on Oct. 16 after three straight losses to end the regular season, cruised to a straight-sets (25-10, 25-11, 25-13) win over the 25th-seeded Bulldogs in Monday’s semifinal.

“I’m very proud of them, how they’ve evolved this year. … I’m just proud of the way that we’re winning as a team, playing as a team. If you can’t do that, it’s hard [to win],” Hubbard head coach Greg Powell said. “I’m just proud of everyone. Looking forward to going to the district finals for the first time in quite a while.”

Hubbard, which Powell said has been practicing with a different rotation, got off to a quick start Monday by winning the first eight points of the opening set and 16 of the first 19. While Woodridge did manage to reach double-digits, that is where it would stop, as the Eagles took the first set 25-10.

The Bulldogs proved to be much more competitive in the early going in set two; they took the first two points and were only down two more than halfway through the set.

But after four straight points, Woodridge stalled, and Hubbard took advantage. The Eagles’ lead ballooned from 11-9 to 18-10, in part due to the serving of Haleigh Taylor, before Woodridge called a timeout. After resuming play, Hubbard continued to roll, winning seven of the final eight points to close out the set 25-11.

Like the second set, Woodridge began well but faded down the stretch in the third and final set. The Bulldogs hung with the Eagles for more than half of the set and trailed 12-10 before Hubbard rattled off three straight points and seven of the next eight.

Although a timeout helped to momentarily break the streak, the Eagles wasted little time finishing the Bulldogs off and won six of the final seven points.

After the victory Monday, Powell said his team’s sectional title match win over Jefferson “brought [them] together” and gave the Eagles much-needed confidence after losing to Campbell Memorial, West Branch and Salem at the end of the regular season.

“Confidence is everything in the world,” Powell said. “You can see it in their faces. My team’s a very emotional team, and we play very high and we play very low. We’re not even-keeled, so to see them with positive emotion and confidence, it’s rewarding. It really is.”

Monday’s win earned Hubbard (15-9) a place in the district championship match on Wednesday, when they will play either ninth-seeded Perry or 15th-seeded Cleveland Villa Angela-St. Joseph, whose semifinal match was not final at print deadline.

The district final will be played at Woodridge in Peninsula on Wednesday at 7 p.m. Powell said he would watch the other semifinal Monday evening before planning Tuesday’s practice.