For Butler volleyball, it's all about raising the bar.

The Golden Tornado did that again Wednesday night at Norwin High School, defeating Latrobe 3-0 in a first-round WPIAL Class 4A playoff game.

The playoff triumph was Butler's first in eight years.

“These girls are doing a great job of raising the bar for the program,” Butler coach Meghan Lucas said. “Last year, we made it to the playoffs for the first time in about eight years.

“I told the team from the start of this year that just reaching the playoffs again wouldn't be good enough. We had to take it another step farther.”

The Tornado won the match rather easily, defeating Latrobe 25-12, 25-17, 25-20. The Wildcats were seeded eighth in the tourney, Butler ninth.

Butler defeated Latrobe 3-0 in a regular season match in September.

“That helped us in preparing for this match,” Lucas said. “We were able to pick out some things on film.

“We did a good job of setting and controlling, hitting the ball to spots we wanted. When you do that, you can win.”

Maria Lucas had seven kills, two aces and 14 digs for Butler (11-6). Sophia Sacriponte added seven kills.

Tabitha Walker had 30 assists, 20 digs and four kills. Julia Gibson contributed six kills and two blocks to the victory.

The Tornado play at defending state champion North Allegheny at 7:30 p.m. Monday.

“On any given night, anything can happen,” Lucas said. “We're the only section team that has to play another team in its section this quickly, but that's how it is.

“We'll come out, play hard and see what happens.”

DuBois 3, Karns City 0 — The Gremlins dropped this regular season match 25-20, 25-16, 25-17. Emma Clark had six kills and three blocks.

Mackenzie Dunn had 14 digs for KC while Emily Huff contributed two kills and four aces, Emily Wolfe two kills and six digs.

DuBois won the junior varsity match by scores of 25-15, 26-24.

Boys Soccer

Karns City (18-1) jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first half and rolled to a 6-0 win over Elk County Catholic in a first-round District 9 playoff game at Brockway.

Nate Rondinelli scored three goals for the Gremlins, including both second-half tallies. Owen Colwell scored twice in the first half. Dakota King finished the first half scoring off a cross pass from Austin Fahlor.

King assisted through a give-and-go on Rondinelli's final goal.

Jake Weckerly needed to make just two saves in recording his 11th shutout of the season.

The Gremlins play the Brockway-DuBois Central Christian winner for the District 9 championship next week.

Girls Soccer

Freeport grabbed an ealy lead, but the Yellowjackets' season ended with a 6-1 WPIAL Class 2A playoff loss at South Park.

Sidney Shemanski scored the game's first goal for Freeport less than three minutes into the contest. South Park tied the game less than 10 minutes later and had a 3-1 lead at halftime.

The Eagles scored their fourth goal early in the second half.

Freeport ends its season at 11-7-2. South Park (17-2) won its sixth straight game and has outscored its opponents 36-2 during that stretch.