(Butler, PA) The Butler County Community College volleyball team will compete for a national title in Minnesota within two weeks.
The Pioneers earned a spot in the National Junior College Athletic Association Division III championships Saturday after beating Sandhills Community College, of Pinehurst, N.C., 3-2 in the Mid-Atlantic District A-B tournament.
Sandhills’ ensuing loss to Owens Community College in the three-team, round-robin district tournament secured the Pioneers’ third national championship appearance since 2002.
“We’re going to nationals,” assistant coach Autumn Rodgers said.
“That was our No. 1 goal,” outside hitter Breanna Reisinger said.
“BC3 hasn’t gone since 2009,” middle hitter Aslyn Pry said. “So that’s like a big deal.”
“I can’t wait,” libero Lainey Tobolewski said.
BC3 head coach Rob Snyder is 410-153, with 12 conference and 11 regional titles in his 22 seasons.
“Getting to nationals is just an unbelievably difficult task, with the Ohio team and the North Carolina team,” Snyder said. “It’s a really big hill to climb.”
The Ohio team is Owens, of Perrysburg, the champion of the NJCAA Division III’s Region 12.
Sandhills, the North Carolina team, is the champion of Region 10 and BC3, of Region 20.
The three squads competed Saturday to eliminate one.
“Our main focus was on Sandhills”
Owens, the second-ranked team in the NJCAA Division III, finished the Mid-Atlantic District A-B tournament 2-0. BC3, the third-ranked team in the NJCAA Division III, ended 1-1 and Sandhills 0-2.
Owens (26-7) and BC3 (16-1) advance to the 12-team NJCAA Division III championships Nov. 11-13 in Rochester, Minn. Sandhills ends 23-5.
Owens has won the past two NJCAA Division III national championships.
“Going into this weekend, our biggest concern was just beating Sandhills,” BC3 setter Morgan Jack said.
“Our main obstacle was that first game,” Reisinger said.
“Our main focus was on Sandhills,” Pry said.
The Pioneers won the first two sets against Sandhills, 25-21 and 25-23. Sandhills won the next two, 25-19 and 25-20, and held leads of 4-2 and 5-3 in the decisive fifth set.
“If we would have lost, that would have put all the focus on Owens,” Pry said.
BC3 rallied to win that final set 15-13.
“An amazing win”
In the final set against Sandhills, Jack had seven assists, Pry and Reisinger combined for five kills, and Pry and Abby Granato, an outside hitter, combined for two blocks.
“An amazing win,” said Rodgers, BC3’s head coach Saturday. Snyder missed the game because of an illness but viewed the tournament live on a video-sharing website.
“I’m just so proud of them,” Rodgers said. “They learned today they are able to compete. I think we just need to take that, practice hard the next two weeks and get ready for nationals.”
Jack, Pry, Reisinger, Madison Raypush and Granato finished with single-match season-highs in assists, kills, digs and blocks against Sandhills.
Jack had 61 assists. Pry had 20 kills and Reisinger 18. Raypush, an outside hitter, had 17 digs. Granato and Pry had five blocks each.
Tobolewki added 17 digs, Reisinger 13 and Josie Rupp, an outside hitter, 12.
Camryn Lowe led Sandhills with 24 assists. Lexi Allen had 16 kills, Shelby Hull 40 digs and KeKe Lawrence eight blocks.
“It’s going to be another level”
Owens on Saturday beat Sandhills 25-11, 25-13 and 25-12, then BC3 26-24, 25-14 and 25-13.
Jack had 20 assists, Tobolewski 13 digs and Pry eight kills against Owens.
Owens’ Jessica Dohm had 21 assists, Maddie White nine kills and McKenna Babcok 14 digs against BC3.
The Pioneers’ 16-1 record is their best since 2016 and their No. 3 ranking among 91 NJCAA Division III volleyball programs is a first.
Players on a BC3 team that recorded the program’s 12th winning season in a row are Logan Barnhart, setter, Moniteau; Kylee Bender, defense, Knoch; Riley Danner, defense, Knoch; Morgan Frishkorn, opposite hitter, Knoch; Granato, Mohawk; Jack, Knoch; Claire Kile, middle hitter, Harvest Baptist; Pry, Moniteau; Raypush, Knoch; Reisinger, Lincoln, Ellwood City; Rupp, Redbank Valley; and Tobolewski, Seneca Valley.
BC3 finished fifth in the NJCAA Division III championships 2002 and sixth in 2009.
The Pioneers this fall under Snyder won their sixth Western Pennsylvania Collegiate Conference title in a row and their third consecutive NJCAA Division III Region 20 championship.
BC3 did not play in 2020 as a result of an NJCAA decision to postpone athletics with regard to COVID-19.
Owens will represent Mid-Atlantic District A in the NJCAA Division III championships and BC3, Mid-Atlantic District B. Other districts will be Midwest, North A and B, North Atlantic A and B, Northeast A and B, North Plains A and B, and Southwest.
“It’s going to be another level,” Snyder said. “It’s bigger and it’s faster. It’s hard to describe it to them because we don’t have teams like that around here.
“Now they’ve seen it. Now they know what they have to anticipate. I think they saw, especially in the first game, if they play to the level they are capable of, they can compete. We just have to play to that level longer.”
Rock Valley, Ill., the first-ranked team in the NJCAA Division III, will represent the Midwest. Raritan Valley, N.J., and Rowan College of South Jersey, Gloucester, N.J., will represent North Atlantic A and B, respectively. Queensborough, N.Y., and Rockland, N.Y., will represent Northeast A and B, respectively. Minnesota State, Fergus Falls, Minn, and Central Lakes, Brainerd, Minn., will represent North Plains A and B, respectively; and Brookhaven, Texas, the Southwest.
Representatives of North A and B have yet to be decided.
