The Pittsburgh 3-Rivers Volleyball Club 18-North team, featuring players from Butler and Seneca Valley, received a bid for the USA Junior Olympic Girls Volleyball Championships.

The event will take place June 26 to 29 in Dallas.

"This is the first time since I've been coach that our club has received a national bid,"said 3-Rivers coach Rob Snyder.

Snyder is a former Butler County Community College women's volleyball coach and is an assistant coach with the Seneca Valley High program. He currently is the BC3 athletic director and has been coaching this AAU program, formerly known as Renaissance, for six years.

Slippery Rock University volleyball coach Louise Schultz coaches the 3-Rivers club with Snyder.

The 3-Rivers Volleyball Club finished second to Synergy Orange, losing 25-21, 25-15 in the finals, at the Keystone Region Tournament held at Indiana (Pa.) University.

The win gave Synergy Orange a bid to the National Division of the Junior Olympic Volleyball Championships. The 3-Rivers team received a bid to compete in the American Division at nationals.

"We had 16 teams in our region, which is rather sizable,"Snyder said. "We received a bid because of the size of our region and the season we put together."

The Junior Olympic Volleyball Championships consist of three divisions. The Open Division requires winning an open qualifier and has 24 teams. The National and American divisions have 48 teams each.

"We'll be competing against mainly second-place teams from other regions,"Snyder said. "We've played four or five of the other teams that qualified and we were competitive against them.

"On the first day of most tournaments, we pick up three wins. At this meet, it's going to be tough from the first match on."

The 3-Rivers 18-North team has nine players on its roster, including junior defensive specialist Stephanie Mock and junior opposite Rebecca Smith of Butler.

Seneca Valley players on the team include senior setter Lauren Balmert, senior outside Justine Carrow, junior middle Meghan Franz and junior libero Margaret Gillooly.

Rounding out the roster are senior outside Erin Bean of Clarion, senior outside Noelle Lininger of Fox Chapel and senior middle Maria Nolan of North Allegheny.

"All of our players were all-section and/or all-state players in high school,"Snyder said. "There is a lot of talent on this team."

The 3-Rivers 18-North team began practicing in November and has played in seven tournaments since February. It finished second in the three-day Early Bird tourney in Columbus, Ohio, and fifth at the Northeast Qualifier in Baltimore.

"Those were our highest finishes ever in those two events,"Snyder said.

3-Rivers won a tournament at IUPearlier in the season.