BUTLER TWP — The Lucas volleyball family is on the move — again.

Butler High School girls volleyball coach Meghan Lucas will be taking two of her daughters — Maria, 16, and Sophia, 14 — to the Girls Summer Junior National Volleyball Championships in Minneapolis this week.

Maria plays for the Revolution 16-under team coached by Heidi Miller while Sophia plays for the 14-under squad coached by Mike Hogan.

Lucas has a third daughter, Gabrielle, who competed at nationals in New Orleans two years ago as part of the Renaissance club team. She will be coaching all three of her girls on the Butler High School team this fall.

“This is our first year with Revolution,” Coach Lucas said. “I got with (North Allegheny coach) Brian Williams and we decided to form a Pittsburgh-based group of teams with them and it's worked out well.

“I like what they stand for — building kids up — rather than tearing them down, which you see too much of in youth sports today.”

The Lucas family is headed to nationals for the third consecutive year. Sophia's team qualified for last year's event in Indianapolis.

“All three of my girls will experience playing at that level now and that's a neat thing for us,” Lucas said.

The Revolution volleyball club was founded in 2007 by Dan LaBonte in Chambersburg. There were originally five teams there.

Now there are 20 total teams, based in Chambersburg, State College and Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh 16 and 14 teams are the first Revolution squads to reach nationals.

Both teams got there by finishing second in their respective Keystone Region Volleyball Association tournaments. The 14-year-old team had to survive a field of 19 teams, the 16-year-old team a field of 25.

“There are hundreds of teams in the region. Anywhere from 30 to 40 of them try to qualify for nationals ... It's a big deal to get there,” Lucas said.

Maria Lucas is the daughter headed to nationals for the first time.

“I'm so excited,” she said. “And this experience with the club team will make me a better high school player.

“The coaching staff does all of the little things to make us better. We do workouts in the gym, outside of volleyball.”

Maria mentioned that the club focuses on our “four pillars of volleyball — intelligence, IQ, skills and athleticism.”

Both teams played in seven tournaments during the season to lead up to nationals. Both won the MLK tournament in their age divisions in January to begin the club season, beating out 32 and 46 teams, respectively.

The 14-year-old team — which includes Beth Long of Mars along with girls from Northern Cambria, North Allegheny, South Fayette and Carlynton — placed third out of 51 teams at the Capitol Hill Classic in Washington, D.C.

The 16-year-old team has players from North Hills, North Allegheny, Oakland Catholic, Pine-Richland and Serra Catholic.

“I think we can fare well at nationals because these teams are used to high-level competition,” Lucas said.

The nationals run from June 25 through July 4. Tryouts for the Revolution teams took place the day after the high school state finals in November.

“It's a long year and everyone gets tired at some point,” Maria Lucas said. “But the love of the game is what gets you through.”

The U.S. national team makes an appearance during the tournament and well over 100 teams from regions all over the country will be competing.

The teams exchange gifts before matches. Revolution will be presenting Terrible Towels as its gift.

“The whole event is a lot of fun. It's a volleyball mecca for all of us junkies,” Coach Lucas said.