The Seneca Valley boys’ volleyball program has made a lot a lot of changes from last season to this season with a completely new team, new coach, and new athletic director.  On Saturday at the North Allegheny volleyball tournament, the team was given an opportunity to prove to the other high schools that Seneca Valley is still a team to respect.

This annual tournament is the sign for most volleyball teams that the high school season has officially started.

To start the day the Raiders were put in a pool where they would play one game to 25 against three other teams.

Seneca had a sluggish start and lost the first game to Montour by four points.  After the first game the Raiders picked up their game and dominated Central Catholic beating them by twenty points.  The final game in the first pool was against a powerhouse team from Derry.  In a thrilling and suspenseful game the Raiders lost by two points.

After all of those games in the first pool had been played the teams were reseeded and placed in a second pool of four teams based upon how well they did in the first pool.  In this new pool the Raiders played each opponent twice.

The team was determined not to be knocked out of the tournament early, so they went on to beat Plum and Shaler in the first two matches.

The last team in the bracket was Central York who is team from the eastern part of the state with a reputation for constantly being one of the best in the state every year.  The two games went back and forth between the Raiders and Central York.  However, after this seesaw movement with the score, Central York was able to beat the Raiders in a heartbreaker at the very last moment.

After playing volleyball for around ten hours playoffs actually started.  In the first round the Seneca Valley Raiders were matched up against Upper Saint Clair.

Despite the desire to advance further in the playoffs, fatigue was taking an obvious toll on the Seneca players.  Senior Tyler Blinn made several incredible saves and was a huge motivator on the court, but it was not enough to over Upper Saint Clair.  The final score was Upper Saint Clair 25 to Seneca Valley 22.