JACKSON TWP — While Butler looked for offense, Seneca Valley delivered plenty Tuesday night.

Outside hitters Nick Shaffer and Nate Steel combined for 23 kills and middle hitter Brad Parrish contributed seven blocks as the Raiders battled their way to a 3-0 boys volleyball victory.

Scores of the games were 25-16, 25-20, 26-24.

"Our outside hitting is probably our biggest strength," first-year SV coach Dan Mountain said.

It was Butler's biggest problem.

"We didn't hit the ball tonight. We didn't attack enough," Golden Tornado coach Lew Liparulo said. "When you're inconsistent on offense, you're going to have problems.

"They owned us on the outside tonight."

Seneca Valley (6-1, 5-1) cruised to victory in the first game, opening a 13-5 lead and was never threatened.

The final two games went to the wire.

Butler (3-3, 3-3) took a 7-1 lead in Game 2, only to fall behind 20-15. The Tornado rallied to score five of the next six points, however, using a Josh Houston kill to pull within 21-20.

The Raiders scored the game's final four points, using a kill by Pat Kulp, successive blocks by Cameron Knight and an illegal Butler timeout to clinch the game.

Game 3 saw SV use some different players.

"We have a number of good players on this team and we have to get everybody playing time," Mountain said. "I'm still shuffling guys around, looking at combinations."

Butler had a 23-20 lead in the third game, only to surrender six of the match's final seven points.

"We played as hard as we could," Liparulo said. "We had four sophomores in the lineup tonight, including two sophomore setters. It's been an adjustment for everybody."

Junior setter Dustin DeFrancisis, the usual starter, has been sidelined with a shoulder injury.

One of those sophomore setters, Xavier Kause, had 12 assists. Steven Stauffer was the other.

Anthony Lewis had 12 passes for the Tornado, Mike Dreher and Houston had eight kills each.

Liparulo said he's had his starting lineup on the court for only one match all season.

"We're just trying to get everybody healthy so we can compete with teams like this," Liparulo said.

"I feel like our team is right there," Mountain said. "As solid as this program's been, there's only one section banner (2007) on the wall. There's no WPIAL or state championships.

"My job is to take this program to that next level."

Seneca Valley's junior varsity improved to 8-0, 6-0 with a 25-17, 25-23 win over the Tornado.

Despite Tuesday's varsity loss, Butler is two games in front of Pine-Richland and Shaler for the final playoff berth out of Section 2.