Souhegan's Dallen Noorda, left, leads the cheers on the bench as the Sabers edged Windha, 3-2, to advance Thursday to this Saturday's boys volleyball state final at Nashua South.

NASHUA – Pure energy.

That’s what the Souhegan High School boys volleyball team says it had to bounce back from a big Windham rally to win 3-2 and land in its first ever NHIAA state title match vs. local rival and two-time defending champion Hollis Brookline.

And they know where that energy comes from – first-year junior middle blocker Dallen Noorda.

“He is the most excited and most energizing kid I’ve ever seen,” Sabers senior veteran Chase McBride said. “He hypes our team up so much. Honestly, I think this win is partly due to him, just hyping us up in that fifth set.

“We refuse to lose, and that stuck with all of us going in that fifth set.”

“I just needed to stay hyped, because that energy is the reason our team is so good,” Noorda said. “We keep that energy, and we are unbeatable.”

Get ready for a fabulous final. The No. 2 Sabers (16-2), will take on No. 5 Cavaliers (14-4) 6 p.m. Saturday at the Belanger Gym. HB shook off a Dover third set come-from behind win to beat the No. 8 Green Wave, 3-1 in the other semi, which was moved to a 3:30 p.m. start at Oyster River High School due to Dover’s graduation.

That dream local matchup almost didn’t happen, as the Sabers were in trouble. They won the first two sets 25-23, 26-24, but in the second set the Jags had to be kicking themselves giving up six straight points after leading 24-20. They then won 25-16 and 25-20 to force the deciding fifth set up to 15 – and had taken a 7-4 lead. Clearly, the Sabers, fortunate they didn’t lose the whole thing 3-1, were on the ropes. Their season on the line, Sabers coach Carla Boyer called a key time out.

“It was really just to get them out of their heads,” she said. “They had started to play like they were defeated already,” Boyer said. “The time out was to say ‘You guys need to get out of your heads, you guys need to figure what it is you need to do to score, and keep them from scoring. Do not play like it’s done and it’s over.'”

And, once they regained their faith, Boyer said, “Momentum started shifting and changing.”

Did it ever – eight straight points to take a commanding 12-7 lead, with three more points needed. The No. 3 Jags (14-4) closed to within 13-10, but Souhegan got the final two points, the last coming on a return that was way out.

“Souhegan’s serve is tough,” said Windham coach Matt Heckler, who challenged a couple of calls in that fifth set but to no avail. “There was nothing we could really do, we got out of system. And they took advantage.”

Meanwhile, Souhegan was much stronger at the net, led by junior Everett Boyer’s 23 kills. “They were not stopping No. 17,” Carla Boyer said. “I thought at some point they would but it didn’t happen.”

Addison Hodgdon had 17 kills while McBride had near 50 assists.

But Noorda had the intangible.

“Noorda came in and said ‘We we are not losing this game,'” Boyer said. “‘We need to do this. We are not losing.'”

Souhegan’s Addison Hodgdon fires a return at Windham’s Noah Allen and Tomas Navaratil duirng Thursday’s boys volleyball semifinal at Nashua South. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

Souhegan’s Addison Hodgdon fires a return at Windham’s Noah Allen and Tomas Navaratil during Thursday’s boys volleyball semifinal at Nashua South. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

HB STAYS COURSE TO BEAT DOVER

The Cavaliers won the first two sets, 25-21, 25-17 before Dover fought off match point and rallied in the third, 28-26. But then HB took care of business in the fourth, winning 25-20 in their drive for a threepeat.

Jordan Beck and Ethan Norris each had 17 kills while setter Bradley Noble had what HB head coach Ed Leonard called “a master class performance” with 41 assists.

“I was impressed with their composure and togetherness,” Leonard said. “It would have been easy to focus on the change of venue. It was like anything. You can control what you can control and they did a great job of that tonight and throughout the season.”

HB lost four matches – to Souhegan, Timberlane, Londonderry and Windham. In other words, all the teams above them in the standings/seedings. They already beat Timberlane in the tourney rematch, and now they get another with Souhegan.

“Every year I try to tell the boys – they don’t believe me – that playoff HB is different than regular season HB,” Leonard said. “The regular doesn’t matter; that’s our preseason. When postseason starts, that’s when it matters and that’s when we have to be at our best.”

(Seacoastonline.com and Telegraph sports correspondent Nicholas Perenick contributed to this report.)