JACKSON TWP — Having put together very strong campaigns during the regular season, the Butler and Seneca Valley volleyball teams were not about to let their guards down Tuesday.

In the first round of the WPIAL Class AAA volleyball playoffs, both teams swept their respective opponents at Seneca Valley High School.

The Tornado downed Baldwin 25-20, 25-19, 25-19 while the Raiders defeated Hempfield 25-19, 25-15, 25-10.

Both teams will advance to Thursday's quarterfinal round. Butler will face the Bethel Park-Plum winner at 6 p.m. at Deer Lakes. Seneca Valley will meet the Penn-Trafford-Upper St. Clair winner at 6 p.m. at North Allegheny.

“I think our loss to Fox Chapel (May 10) really put it in perspective,” said Butler coach Lew Liparulo. “That showed that you have to play every night. And we had a close game against Seneca Valley (a 3-2 loss May 12).

“We had a lot more errors, but we got a lot of points with kills, blocks and aces,” he added.

Losses to the Foxes and Raiders dropped Butler to 7-5 in the section to tie Fox Chapel. The Raiders went 10-2 in the section with losses coming against North Allegheny 3-0 on April 14 and May 10.

“Last year, we bypassed the first round, so psychologically, it was good to play well and get past the first round,” said Raiders coach Dan Mountain. “We're looking for bigger and better challenges on Thursday.”

The Raiders (13-2) jumped out to an early 4-0 lead in the first game against the Spartans (5-7) as Ben Hart and Zach Herrmann opened with kills and Herrmann served up a pair of aces.

That set an early tone that the Raiders would enjoy throughout the evening. They opened up a nine-point advantage at 18-9 in that first set and went on to capture the set.

“Hempfield's a good team so coming in and shutting them down was very important,” Mountain said.

The Raiders, however, did start out slow in the second set as Hempfield took a 3-0 lead thanks to a service error, a four-hit possession and a back row attack violation.

Seneca Valley trailed 6-5 before taking 11 of the next 14 points for a 16-9 lead and never looked back. In the third set, the Raiders opened with a 7-1 stretch to help close out the match.

“I told the guys, ‘Let's wear them down,'' said Mountain, “and you could see that in the middle of the third set.”

“We didn't have the chemistry this year,” said Hempfield coach John Howell. “Every year you look at it on paper, but it just wasn't there. That happens.

“Some teams are talented. Seneca Valley is a very skilled team. We knew that coming in,” Howell added.

Chad Albert led the Raiders with 12 kills and Herrmann added 10 kills, Brad Parrish eight blocks and Hart three aces.

The Tornado (10-5) and Highlanders (7-6) were at the Norwin Tournament back in late March, but Baldwin coach Eric Falcione knew Butler would be a stronger team than at the start of the year.

“Both of our teams are a little different now, but I knew they were very good,” said Falcione. “They have a fantastic setter (Dustin DeFrancisis). He's one of the better ones we've seen.

DeFrancisis totaled 25 assists for the Tornado, who fell in an early 9-4 hole in the first set before Butler would tie the game at 10.

Xavier Krause led that charge as his kill, plus three consecutive service aces evened the score.

Trailing 14-13, Butler received a Mike Dreher kill, a Krause block, a Derek Wilbert kill, a Dreher service ace and a hitting error by Baldwin gave Butler an 18-14 lead.

Baldwin pulled no closer than three points the rest of the set.

The second set saw 10 ties, the last at 16 before Butler took the next four points — capped by another Dreher kill — to pull away.

In the final set of the night, again Butler and Hempfield were knotted at 16 before Butler won the next seven points, highlighted by two Krause aces and a kill, to seal the win.

“These guys are very excited,” said Liparulo about the playoff win. “That puts a lot of confidence in them.”

Krause led Butler with seven aces while Dreher added 10 kills and nine passes. Jordan Hartman led Baldwin with eight kills.