BUTLER TWP — Hillary Pendel had no inclination to play volleyball after she graduated from Slippery Rock High.

But here she is, a sophomore at Butler County Community College, bumping a volleyball over the net before practice Tuesday.

"I didn't plan on playing," said Pendel, who was a volleyball star at Slippery Rock. "It was just an opportunity."

It's one that most of the roster has jumped at.

Eleven of the 12 players on the Pioneers' roster played at Butler County area high schools, and they all have one thing in common with Pendel: a second chance to play volleyball.

After making a surprising trip to the National Junior College Athletic Association Division III championships last season, the Pioneers are off to a 15-4 start.

BC3 returned seven players from that team — an unusually high number for a community college.

"That's unheard of," said Pioneers volleyball coach Rob Snyder. "To get them all back is a big deal."

Like Pendel, most didn't plan on playing to begin with, but they found their way into a program Snyder rescued before last season.

The team was without a coach, and Snyder, who left the program in 2002, swooped back in to save it.

He managed to gather a melting pot of Butler County talent as well.

Karns City graduate Ashley Campbell planned to play only basketball at the school, but she decided to try her hand at volleyball, too, after starring on the court with the Gremlins.

The sophomore has become one of the most dominant middle hitters in the country. Campbell is ranked No. 26 in the nation in hitting efficiency and has 58 kills this season.

"I think I've become a better player just practicing against these people," Campbell said. "I had to up my level."

Seneca Valley graduate Sarah Beals is one of the few players on the roster who did have designs on playing volleyball at a four-year school.

But a knee injury wiped out her senior season with the Raiders and forced her to improvise.

At first, she was unsure of the level of play she would find at BC3.

"The quality of play is so much better than I thought," said Beals, a sophomore setter. "I didn't expect that at all. I thought, 'this is community college. How hard was it going to be?'"

But Beals found herself challenged. It helped her recover more quickly from her knee injury, she said.

"The knee injury messed up my plans to go to another college," Beals said. "It motivated me a lot. I didn't think playing here was going to be as intense as it was, so it really got me back into it. I really want to move on and play at a four-year school (next year)."

For now, the team is focusing on this season.

"We won't know how good a team we are until the end of the year when we can see if we won anything," Snyder said.

Win or lose, BC3 is offering its players something they may not have had otherwise: a chance.

"We have some kids who are seasoned and know what competitive volleyball is all about," Snyder said. "Most of them, if they want to, can go to play somewhere else. They may not have known that coming out of high school."