Butler calm in playoff-opening win against Central Catholic
BUTLER TWP — Experience peaked through — and that was all the difference.
With a speed bump of a third set being the lone exception, Butler defeated visiting Central Catholic in the initial round of the WPIAL Class 3A boys volleyball playoffs Tuesday night. The scores were 25-22, 25-13, 25-15, and 25-8.
The dynamic of the game might have been different had the Vikings finished out a first set that they didn’t trail in until late. The Golden Tornado had only one brief lead through the first 38 serves, then gained 20-19 advantage on a serving ace by Coleton Welter. Alex Moncello followed that with a block, and Butler closed the set out with a 7-3 surge.
“We had 10 unforced errors that first set — missed serves, hitting balls out of bounds,” Golden Tornado coach Lew Liparulo said. “We cleaned it up the second set.”
Butler (12-5), who reached last year’s playoffs, were collected. Central Catholic, on the other hand, was on an unfamiliar stage. The Vikings (5-9) were participating in the postseason for the first time since at least 2017.
“We just hesitated,” Central Catholic coach Grant Heckmann said, adding later that his team . “We were playing well. I felt good about it early on, but just the refinement of our passing and our serving just wasn’t quite there in that first set.
“Unfortunately, that brought us down for that second set, too.”
Heckmann was referring to his side spotting the Golden Tornado the first eight points of the following game, five of them coming via Central Catholic hitting errors. Butler cruised to a 12-point victory in that set, then never had an advantage in the next.
“We never established our offense, in addition to unforced errors, and they pulled it together for a set,” Liparulo said.
“The good and bad of being a young team with some inexperienced players is sometimes there’s inconsistent play where you see those big misses and those big runs,” Heckmann said. “I know we have a good, high ceiling, and when we can put things together, we played really well.
“We’ve seen a lot this year of just big swings of good and big swings of bad.”
The teams were knotted at four apiece in the final set, then the hosts enjoyed a 21-4 run to put it away.
The Golden Tornado had 15 service errors on the night, but the younger group’s miscues outweighed those of Butler’s.
“It’s the first night of playoffs and the last night they’re playing in a game here at Butler, so it is what it is,” Liparulo said. “We were primarily utilizing our outside hitter, and we never really got a middle established. It made it easy for them to anticipate where we were going to go with it.”
Moncello totaled 36 assists for the Golden Tornado, Coleton Welter 16 kills and a pair of aces, and Adam Kaufman 16 blocks. Max Gianneski had three blocks.
