Tornado volleyball falls, 3-0
BUTLER TWP — Lew Liparulo will be the first to tell you that his Butler boys volleyball team is not lacking effort, but size.
That deficit did the Golden Tornado in Monday night as Hempfield controlled play at the net in a 25-19, 25-15, 25-15 non-section sweep at Butler High School.
“We don't have size. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out,” said Liparulo. “We go with who we have and do the best we can.”
Junior outside hitter Will Kuhns and his 11 kills led the Spartans' attack, which never allowed Butler to sustain momentum.
“When we're good at the net, we're a good team,” said Hempfield coach John Howell. “It's the unforced errors that make some of our games closer than they should be. We need to become more consistent.”
A kill from Butler's Nathan Sespico tied the first set at 18, but the Spartans then earned back the serve and received a pair of blocks from Chaz Ewer and a kill from Randy Nelson and scored seven of the set's final eight points.
Hempfield jumped out to leads of 4-0 and 5-0 in the second and third set, respectively, and never trailed in either case.
Butler's best run of the night came in the third set. Trailing 15-6, the Tornado ran off six straight points, including a kill from Sespico and a service ace from Xavier Zentz. The spurt closed the gap to 15-12, but Kuhns dropped a kill to stop the spree and the Spartans were not threatened again.
“Hempfield's a good team,” said Liparulo. “Their only section loss is to Latrobe and they (Spartans) are probably one of the top four or five teams in the WPIAL.”
Making matters even more difficult on the Tornado (5-7, 3-4) was the loss of senior Logan Donnel, one of Butler's players with some size who contributes in both the front and back row. He injured his wrist early and remained on the court for the duration of the first set before sitting the rest of the night.
Junior Dennis Goodwine paced Butler with nine kills. Sespico added six kills.
Dealing with largely an inexperienced team, Liparulo is trying to find the right combination of players that will lead to more success.
“We've tried everything,” he said. “Our kids are trying hard and I haven't seen any quit in them this season.”
Howell is encouraged by his players, who have turned in a 7-2 overall record despite having no seniors with considerable playing time.
“Our rotation includes five juniors, two sophomores and a freshman,” he said.
Butler has a string of section games coming up, beginning with a home date against North Allegheny on Thursday.
“We lost to Fox Chapel (3-2) last Thursday and that hurt us,” Liparulo said. “Our goal is still to make the playoffs. If we can beat North Hills and Pine-Richland, that would really help us.”
