Butler County Pioneers win Division III Volleyball Championship
Butler, PA – The Butler County Community College Pioneers captured the 2024 NJCAA Region 20 Division III Volleyball Championship on October 26th on their home court. Butler was awarded the top seed in the tournament after compiling a 21-0 record for the season and earned a bye to the championship contest.
The Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC) and Pennsylvania Highlands Community College played the tournament opener as the second and third seeds respectively. CCAC won the first set 25-18 but Penn Highlands answered in the second set, winning 25-20. CCAC would take the third and fourth sets to defeat Penn Highlands and advance to the championship round against Butler.
The two teams met twice in the regular season with Butler winning both contests over CCAC 3-0. Josie Russo and Molly Bissel led Butler's offense to the same result as they defeated CCAC 3-0 (25-7, 25-3, 25-12) to capture the Region 20 Championship. Russo had 12 kills while Bissel had seven. Butler's Anora Robare tallied 21 assists and added two aces. Virginia Recchia had nine digs for the Pioneers and Lexi Ruckdeschel contributed five kills and six points.
Russo was named the Tournament Most Valuable Player. Joining her on the All-Tournament Team from Butler was Bissell, Robare, and Ruckdeschel. Kayla Rylie and Alice Childs from CCAC were awarded All-Tournament honors. Tori Harrison, who had seven kills, thirteen digs, and nine points earned honors from Penn Highlands.
Butler advanced to the Mid-Atlantic District Champions and played Sandhills Community College from Region 10 on November 2nd. The Pioneers fell to Sandhills 3-0.