BUTLER TWP — The Butler County Community College volleyball team has swept five consecutive opponents entering a dual championship Saturday whose winner will be one match away from a trip to the national tournament in Iowa.
The Pioneers moved to 17-5 by defeating Penn State New Kensington 3-0 in their regular-season finale Tuesday night.
BC3 begins the postseason Saturday afternoon by playing in a single home match for the Western Pennsylvania Collegiate Conference and National Junior College Athletic Association Division III Region 20 championships.
The top-seeded Pioneers will host in the 2 p.m. final the winner of an 11 a.m. semifinal in BC3’s Field House between the Community College of Allegheny County and Pennsylvania Highlands Community College.
BC3 with a victory Saturday would capture the program’s eighth consecutive WPCC crown and fifth consecutive Region 20 championship. The Pioneers would also advance to host the NJCAA Division III Mid-Atlantic District title match, that winner earning a berth in the national tournament in Cedar Rapids.
“We’re getting to the end of the season, and we have to kick it into high gear and play our best all the time,” said Rosie Carden, BC3’s setter.
“Saturday,” said Lexi Ruckdeschel, a BC3 middle hitter, “is so important. All of us want to make it to nationals. So I think we are going to do anything and everything possible this weekend to win and carry on the season.”
“If we lose,” said Zoe Morley, a BC3 opposite hitter, “we’re done. I don’t want to lose more than I want to win. We need to play solid volleyball, not let up and get it done.”
BC3’s winning record is the program’s 14th in a row. The Pioneers have swept 14 opponents in 2023 and have been nationally ranked six times, and as high as No. 9, among 86 programs in Division III.
“We are playing very good volleyball,” BC3 coach Rob Snyder said. “... Everyone seems to be coming into form right now. Our goal is always to peak at the end, and I think that is what we are doing.”
Carden had 29 assists, Jozee Weaver 16 digs and Ruckdeschel 14 kills Tuesday night against Penn State New Kensington.
“Everything has started to click,” said Carden, among four BC3 freshmen ranked in the Top 40 of Division III statistical categories. “Instead of playing like six separate players, we’re playing like one. We’ve worked well together to win games and get our sweeps.”
Ruckdeschel is ninth with 46 blocks and 16th with a .301 hitting percentage, Nina Szymanski 21st with 384 digs, Carden 25th with 463 assists and Aryana Girvan 40th with 206 kills.
“We’re all understanding everything at the same level,” Ruckdeschel said. “We know where to be. We’re in the right place at the right time and it’s all coming together right now.”
Added Morley: “We’re figuring out what we need to do and what needs to happen without having to talk about it.”
The Pioneers have twice swept the Community College of Allegheny County and Pennsylvania Highlands Community College in the only matches between the programs in 2023.
The champion of Region 20 – in which BC3, Community College of Allegheny County and Pennsylvania Highlands Community College compete – will host the champion of Region 10 in the NJCAA Division III Mid-Atlantic District title match Oct. 28.
Region 10 includes Sandhills Community College, Pinehurst, N.C., which is 19-8 and ranked No. 5 in Division III.
BC3 lost to Sandhills Community College in 2022 in the Mid-Atlantic District tournament. The Pioneers beat the Flyers in 2021 and earned the program’s third berth in the national tournament.
The 2023 season marks the third in a row in which BC3 has been ranked in Division III. The Pioneers were ranked as high as No. 1 in 2022 and as high as No. 3 in 2021.
BC3 has won 18 WPCC championships since 1977 and 12 Region 20 titles since 1999. No other BC3 athletics program has won more WPCC or Region 20 championships.
“We want to live up to the expectations of being BC3 Pioneers in volleyball,” Carden said. “That is another thing that is motivating us to do really well on Saturday.”
Carden, Abby Young and Ruckdeschel are health care science students at BC3. Szymanski and Amber Maurer, Nursing, R.N.; Morley and Tara Metz, general studies; Girvan, business management; Johnna Hill, biological science; Weaver, health and physical education-teacher education; and Alyssa Gallagher, physical education-physical activity and fitness management.
