SLIPPERY ROCK — The Seneca Valley girls volleyball team took care of its top priority Saturday.

Competing in a PIAA Class AAA round-robin along with Schenley, Pine-Richland and McDowell at Slippery Rock University's Morrow Fieldhouse, the Raiders grabbed the second and final spot to advance to the final eight in Pennsylvania.

Along with Pine-Richland, the Raiders will join six other teams Friday at Central York High School to determine the state championship in a two-day event.

Saturday's format had each team playing three sets against the other three squads.

By the time the Raiders met section rival Pine-Richland in the final match, both teams had already punched their ticket to Central York by sweeping McDowell and Schenley.

The Raiders then dropped a hard-fought battle with the Rams, 2-1.

“We said before playing Pine-Richland, ‘Hey, we've already clinched a spot in the next round,' and that's what we were focused on,” said SV coach Karen Martini. “The outcome with Pine-Richland didn't mean a whole lot.”

It was the fourth time this season the Raiders (21-4) fell to the undefeated Rams (21-0), who beat SV 3-1 in the WPIAL championship Nov. 6 after sweeping the regular season series.

But Martini was able to take consolation from this meeting.

“This was the best we've played them all season,” she said. “We had played a good game here and there against them, but today, we played well in all three games.”

The Raiders took the first set by a score of 25-20 before PR evened the score with a 25-20 win of its own.

The Rams led the third set 13-9 before SV reeled off four straight points to tie the score.

Knotted at 19-all, the Rams forced a side-out and then scored four straight points, with junior outside hitter Caitlyn Scioscia coming up with two crucial kills to help her team take a 24-20 lead.

The Raiders earned another possession and two straight points thanks to back-to-back kills from Cate Seman, but Hayley Morgan's kill won it for the Rams, 25-22.

“I think we let up a little down the stretch,” said Martini. “When you have two teams that are evenly matched, you can't give up three or four points in a row because you're not going to get that back.”

“We started passing the ball better,” said Rams' coach Emily Walker. “And we made less errors late in the third set.”

Seman tallied 14 kills and three blocks against Pine-Richland, while Meghan Drambel had 12 kills and Alex Karika 28 assists.

The Rams and Raiders will begin play in separate pools on Friday, but a possible fifth meeting could determine the state champion.

“Seneca Valley is a great team and we have a lot of respect for them,” said Walker. “Winning today shows that we remained focused. We wanted to get the top seed from this.”

Seneca Valley opened play late Saturday morning against District 10 champ McDowell.

After a week-long layoff following the WPIAL title match, Martini was pleased with her team's play in a 25-14, 25-17, 25-8 win.

“We played well,” she said. “I gave the girls a couple days off this past week. By this point in the season, there's only so much you can work on in practice. Too much practice can actually distract a team.”

Karika had 25 assists against the Trojans.

SV then made short work of City League champ Schenley with wins of 25-10, 25-10 and 25-10.