Tornado win thriller
BUTLER TWP — The Butler boys volleyball program hosted its first-ever Alumni Night on Thursday, honoring 30-year head coach Lew Liparulo with a plaque during a pre-match ceremony.
His team’s encore was pretty good, too.
Butler (10-6, 7-5) ended its regular season with an epic 3-2 win over rival Seneca Valley. Scores were 25-20, 26-24, 23-25, 23-25, 15-13. The Raiders ended the regular season at 12-6, 6-6.
Both teams will be in the WPIAL playoffs. The brackets are expected to be released Monday.
“This is a big victory for us,” Liparulo said. “The kids stayed together and played together. Seneca Valley attacks very well and our kids stepped up and challenged that.”
The win avenged a 3-0 SV sweep of the Tornado earlier in the season at Seneca Valley.
“We weren’t ready to play down there,” Liparulo said. “We didn’t play with the intensity that they did. That was my fault as their coach. I didn’t have them prepared.
“Tonight, we were ready.”
The Tornado closed out the first set with a block by Andrew Slaugenhoup and a Raider hit that landed out of bounds. Butler trailed 13-10 in the second set before scoring nine points in a row, highlighted by a block and kill by Coleton Welter.
The Raiders rallied to tie the set at 22, three consecutive kills by Matthew Mirilovich knotting the score. The set was even at 24 before Peter Zulick registered a point on a block to give Butler the lead it never lost.
“This whole night was up and down,” Raiders coach Brett Poirier said. “We just didn’t play consistently enough. Besides the first set, the other four were decided by two-point margins.
“Butler was at home tonight. That’s the biggest difference between our match here and at our place. Good teams are hard to beat at home and they have a very good team.”
The Raiders got back in the match by winning the third and fourth sets. The third set was even at 19 before kills by Peter Breski, Mario Ardolino and Mirilovich helped give SV a 24-23 lead. SV won the set on an errant Butler serve.
The fourth set was tight throughout, the Raiders tying the match as Jordan Hoover and Breski combined on a kill for the 25th point.
“It was tough losing those two sets,” Butler senior captain Coleton Welter admitted. “But we hung together. We had each other’s backs.”
Liparulo said his team “made too many misakes” in the third and fourth sets.
“We had eight or nine mistakes and that’s too many against a team like Seneca Valley,” he said. “But they made their share of mistakes, too.”
Butler jumped out to an 8-5 lead in the fifth set, only to surrender five straight points. An Alfons Semmler kill helped the Tornado pull even at 10 and an Ardilino block pulled the Raiders even at 12.
The Tornado took care of business from there as Welter, Slaugenhoup and Mason Anderson produced kills in the waning moments of the match. It was Anderson’s kill that ended it.
“This win will give us a lot of confidence heading into the playoffs,” Welter said. “We’re pretty excited about what we’re capable of doing.”
Breski and Jordan Hoover had nine kills each, Nicholas Dunmire seven for the Raiders. Welter had 14 kills, Mason McCall 25 assists, Maddox McCall 20 digs and Alec Teff four aces for Butler.
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