Lincoln Pius X coach Jake Moore has always been a leading proponent of third-place matches at the State Volleyball Tournament, something that’s been added to Saturday’s championship schedule.

“And I still am,” Moore said Friday. “I‘m just glad we‘re not in it.’’

The two-time defending Class B state champion and top-ranked Thunderbolts reached the final for the fourth time in five years with a convincing 25-17, 25-20, 25-19 victory against No. 3 Omaha Gross at Pershing Center.

Action switches to the NU Coliseum at 7 p.m. Saturday, when Pius X (37-2) takes on No. 2 Northwest (32-3) in a rematch of last year’s final. The Vikings pulled out close second and third sets to beat Central Conference rival and No. 7 Aurora 25-20, 25-23, 26-24.

“At the beginning of the year, we didn’t know if we’d be back in the finals,’’ said senior outside hitter Natalie Braun, who paced the Pius X offense Friday with 16 kills while also getting 12 digs. “It’s always fun playing Northwest, but it will even be better in the Coliseum.”

Pius X beat Northwest in two sets in the Beatrice Invitational final on the opening weekend of the season. The Thunderbolts then survived a grueling 26-24, 17-25, 25-19, 20-25, 15-10 home victory against the Vikings on Oct. 28.

Counting last year’s state final, Pius X has won the last three meetings between the teams.

“There’s pressure on both teams, but there’s more on Pius X,” said Northwest coach Diane Rouzee, whose Vikings have won two state titles in her career. “They’ve been No. 1 all year, and we’ve been chasing them. We have to get over the fact that it’s Pius X. We gained confidence from how we played them last time and we need to build from that.”

“I think this is what we both wanted,” said Moore, who has led Pius X to five titles. “Tomorrow’s match could be a war.’’

Moore is happy he can go to battle with Super-Stater Lauren Cook one more time. The 5-foot-8 setter, the daughter of NU volleyball coach John Cook, had five kills, two ace blocks and three ace serves to go with 38 assists.

Cook ripped her final kill from the right side on match point.

“I thought Lauren did a phenomenal job running our offense,” Moore said. “She got a little too creative at times tonight, trying to do some things we’re not capable of and I had to rein her in a couple times.”

Thunderbolt middle blockers Allie Falter and Liz Bachmann contributed eight kills apiece, while senior outside hitter Kayla Gaden had six kills and two aces.

Gross (24-13) was led by sophomore Emily Wilson (10 kills) and eight kills each from two other sophomores — Nicole Gregory and Mary Delich. The Cougars never led in any set after point 15.

“We didn’t help ourselves on our side of the net,’’ Gross coach Korrine Schuster said. “When you don’t serve or serve-receive well against a team like Pius, you’re in trouble.”

Northwest trailed 22-21 in the second set, then wiped out an Aurora set point in the third to pull that out. With the Huskies (24-10) leading 24-23, a Taylor Johnson kill pulled Northwest even. A service ace by Melissa Costello made it 25-24, then an Aurora hitting error ended the match.

“We’d beaten Aurora three times already, so we knew they’d be fired up to beat us,” said senior setter/right side Jenna Rouzee, who had 10 kills and 26 assists.  Shayna Schacher paced the Viking offense with 14 kills.

“We came through in the close games, and that should give us confidence for what we might face tomorrow.’’

Josey Nunnenkamp, Shelby Gowen and Jessie Allen all had nine kills to lead Aurora, while junior setter Kaci Hixson put up 36 assists.