JACKSON TWP — Thursday night's WPIAL boys volleyball playoff match was supposed to be another step forward in an already historic season for Seneca Valley.

But Latrobe had other ideas.

Down two games to none, the Wildcats rallied to defeat the Raiders 3-2 in a Class AAA quarterfinal.

The upset came by scores of 24-26, 23-25, 25-21, 25-23 and 15-13.

The Raiders (14-3) were the No. 1 seed entering the playoffs and were ranked second in the state.

"All the games were so close. I don't know if there was any one thing you can pick out and say it was the difference," said Raiders coach Dan Mountain.

"Late in the fifth (game), that's when we started to have problems. Latrobe just had some players step up and make some amazing plays. They came up with some amazing digs.

"Our kids were mentally ready to play a fifth (game)," added Mountain. "I don't think that was a problem."

The Wildcats led 12-9 in the deciding game after Colin Sherwin's kill handed possession back to Latrobe.

The teams alternated one-serve possessions until the Raiders scored to cut Latrobe's lead to 13-12.

After SV lost its serve, Brad Parrish kept the Raiders alive with a kill to make it 14-13, but they were unable to score on offense, losing the final game by two points.

Sherwin tallied 26 kills, six of them in the fifth game.

"He always has huge games for us," said Wildcats coach Drew Vosefski. "I was impressed with our guys' intensity tonight. We knew we were playing a top caliber team and the kids stepped up."

Nate Steele led SV out of the gate, tallying 12 combined kills in the first two games as the Raiders took a commanding 2-0 lead.

"These were two teams unfamiliar with each other," said Mountain. "I think we surprised them early with some of the things we did."

SV then took a 7-2 edge in the third game before the Wildcats reeled off six straight points and forced the Raiders into seven consecutive scoreless possessions.

The Raiders held a slim 17-15 lead in the fourth game before kills by Sherwin, Jake Shoemaker and Greg Maxwell helped the Wildcats force a fifth game.

"I think we were a bit intimidated in the first game," said Vosefski. "But after that, we decided that we were just as good as (SV). Our guys never get rattled and they can handle adversity."

"We had the best regular season in program history this year," said Mountain. "We won the second section title for the program and took a step forward.

"But we didn't want to be out this early. We were all planning on playing for the next few weeks," he added/

Notes: Steele led SV with 19 kills and Nate Hayden had 11. ... The Wildcats play Fox Chapel in the semifinals Tuesday. ... Latrobe also ended SV's season in 2009, beating the Raiders 3-0 in the WPIAL consolation match, which sent the Wildcats to the state playoffs.