BUTLER TWP — The practice on Monday was sluggish.

Then Knoch girls volleyball coach Diane Geist watched her team's first-round PIAA 3A playoff opponent Somerset warm up and those concerns multiplied.

Jitters come with the territory, but Geist felt a foreboding before the Knights' match against the Eagles at Butler High School Tuesday night.

Both teams were district champions, Knoch winning its first-ever WPIAL title just 72 hours earlier.

“I was worried because people talk about the WPIAL hangover,” Geist said.

Then Knoch started slowly in the first set, falling behind 4-1.

But those trepidations were quickly dashed. Knoch played like, well, an undefeated, dominant team again, and made quick work of Somerset with sharp, precise play in a 25-17, 25-14, 25-11 sweep that took just 59 minutes.

“They started out really strong against us,” Geist said. “It was a battle back and forth. We just kept our confidence and kept our focus and stayed loose, but strong.”

Knoch (21-0) took advantage of lots of unforced errors by Somerset (17-4).

The Knights also had 11 service aces in the match — one of the highest totals for the team this season.

“I thought we served really strong,” Geist said. “We took them out of their game a little bit. That's probably the most (aces) we've ever had.”

Knoch, though, fell behind at the start of all three sets.

The Knights were down 4-2 in the second game, but rolled off eight straight points to seize control.

Even in the third set, the most dominant of the night for Knoch, the Knights fell behind again 4-2 before outscoring Somerset 21-3.

Senior hitter Sarah Armahizer said Somerset's defense was one of the toughest the Knights have faced all season.

“They were really good,”Armahizer said. “Oh my gosh, they're a tough team to get kills against. I think it was kind of an out-last kind of thing. We knew they were going to hit balls back, and we weren't going to get a kill every time. We just had to keep pushing and not get frustrated.”

Knoch did a good job with that.

The Knights flustered Somerset, which won the District 5 title this season despite losing seven seniors from a team that reached the state championship game last season.

“When we're on and we play the game that we know how, I think we're a tough team to play against,” said Somerset coach Elizabeth Barron. “We had a lot of our own unforced errors. Serve-receive, serving errors and just errors in general.

“We didn't come out and do what our gameplan was,” Barron added. “We knew where their weak spots were and we just didn't capitalize tonight.”

Because of that, Somerset never got into an offensive rhythm and no player had more than four kills for the Eagles.

Meanwhile, Knoch got plenty of contributions from a wide variety of players.

Sophomore Hannah Rowe had six kills and another sophomore, Kennedy Christy, played a solid overall game on the serve, on the set and at the net.

“I was really happy with the girls' performance,” Geist said. “Kennedy had some good blocks at the end. We passed well. Everybody stayed positive and no one got down. We didn't have any big lulls.”

With the first state match out of the way, Knoch can exhale.

A little bit.

It's now off to the next match Saturday against District 10 champion General McLane at a site and time to be determined.

“We never saw Montour (before the WPIAL title match),” Geist said. “We've never seen these guys before. You just have to get a feel for what they do.”