BUTLER TWP — The Butler County Community College volleyball team ended its 2022 season at 19-4 after setbacks Saturday that included a loss to the three-time-defending national champion in a district tournament in North Carolina.

Owens Community College, Perrysburg, Ohio, was the No. 2-ranked team in the National Junior College Athletic Association’s Division III. Owens, which won national titles in 2021, 2019 and 2018, beat top-ranked BC3 25-19, 25-17 and 25-20 in the opener of the Division III Mid-Atlantic District A-B championship tournament in Pinehurst.

No. 11 Sandhills Community College later topped BC3 25-23, (11-25), 25-22 and 25-15.

BC3 was the Region 20 champion in the tournament; Owens, Region 12 and Sandhills, Region 10.

Owens (27-6) and Sandhills (21-14) advance to the Division III national championship tournament Nov. 10-12 in Rochester, Minn.

Against Owens, BC3 All-American Breanna Reisinger had nine kills and Aslyn Pry and Abby Granato seven each. Pioneers All-American Morgan Jack had 27 assists; Madison Raypush had 16 digs and Reisinger 14.

Against Sandhills, Pry had 16 kills and Reisinger 13. Jack had 41 assists, Raypush had 30 digs and Reisinger 18.

“Owens was very good,” BC3 coach Rob Snyder said. “We were competitive with them. We didn’t play our best in the second match, and that is what cost us.”

The Pioneers in 2022 were ranked No. 1 for the first time in program history, won their fourth consecutive NJCAA Division III Region 20 championship and their seventh Western Pennsylvania Collegiate Conference crown in a row.

“We had a great season,” Snyder said. “We won the games that we were supposed to win. We played good volleyball. We played our best volleyball at the end of the season until that last game. We ran out of gas. But besides that, I think we did well.”

Jack finished as the program’s all-time leader in assists with 1,429 and with Reisinger, Pry, Raypush, Granato and Kile was a member of BC3 squads that had a 37-7 record in two seasons.

Jack is a graduate of Knoch High School and was a setter with BC3; Reisinger, Lincoln High, Ellwood City, was an outside hitter; Pry, Moniteau High, was a middle hitter; Raypush, Knoch, was a libero; Granato, Mohawk, was an outside hitter; and Kile, Harvest Baptist, was a middle hitter.

Pry as of Nov. 1 had the top hitting percentage of players on all 96 Division III squads, and Jack was third in assists per set at 10.18.

The Pioneers’ 2022 roster also included Abby Young, Redbank Valley, defense; Amber Maurer, Karns City, outside hitter; Zoe Morley, Portersville Christian, opposite; and Becca McCandless, Slippery Rock, defense.

NJCAA athletics squads did not play in 2020 as a result of COVID-19.