Having lost of six of seven starters — including three now playing in college — Seneca Valley's varsity boys volleyball team should be facing a lean year.

Not quite.

“It's not a rebuilding year. This is definitely a reloading year,” fourth-year Raiders coach Dan Follett said.

Seneca Valley won its section last season with an 11-1 record, lost in the WPIAL Finals to Fox Chapel and was bounced again by the Foxes in the state semifinals.

“We lost four matches all of last year — three times to Fox Chapel,” Follett said.

Tyler Herrmann and Anthony Sprentz are now playing men's volleyball at Penn State Behrend. Taylor Matthews is playing for Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Ariz.

The Raiders have 11 seniors back who lettered last season. Three of those — setter Luke Pecora, middle blocker Jon Dolfi and outside hitter Sean Cavanagh — are in this year's starting lineup.

They will be joined by junior outside hitters Matt Gagnon and Evan Maurer, libero Marshall Price and sophomore middle blocker Kyle Martini.

“We've got a ton of depth,” Follett said. “We can adjust our lineup from night to night and try to put together favorable matchups for ourselves.

“We play in the toughest section in the state. In each of the last three years, a team from our section has been in the state championship game. Two of us reached the state semifinals last year and that's very hard to do.”

Seneca Valley opened its season Tuesday night with a 3-2 loss perennial power North Allegheny.

There are 22 Class AAA boys volleyball teams in the WPIAL. The top four teams from each section qualify for the playoffs.

Seneca Valley is joined in its section by Butler, Fox Chapel, North Allegheny, Pine-Richland, Shaler and North Hills.

Butler is putting an extremely young team on the court this year after losing four seniors — Chris Fiorina, Rob Kunst, Andrew Hartzell and Brett Heckathorn — to graduation a year ago.

“We've only missed the playoffs a couple of times in the past 10 years — and that's without having much height,” Golden Tornado coach Lew Liparulo said. “We don't grow 'em very tall in Butler.

“Four of our six spots on the floor will be manned by sophomores pretty much all the time. But that's OK. Our kids are playing hard and progressing nicely.”

Three senior starters for the Tornado — 9-6 last season — are middle hitter Ryan Bargo, setter Matt Wetzel and outside hitter Anthony Hook.

Ben Fiorina, a junior, “will be like a sixth man in basketball ... I'll plug him in wherever I need him to go,” Liparulo said.

Among the sophomores who will see action are outside hitters Bryan Nash and Connor Chapla, middle hitters Andrew Chwalik and Cody Schnur, back row players Danny Kline, Nick Penrod and Tyler Rankin.

Nash had 26 kills in Butler's season-opening 3-2 win over Latrobe last week. The Tornado reached the semifinals of the 12-team Norwin Tournament last weekend.

“We're off to a positive start,” Liparulo said.

Butler has had a boys volleyball program since 1994 and Liparulo has been its only coach. Assistant coach Jim Aggas has been there 15 years.

“That's unheard of,” Liparulo said of his longtime assistant. “We complement each other well. Jim has been a real asset to the program.”