One night, that’s what the boys’ volleyball season came down to.  On Thursday, May 9, the Raiders faced the Butler Golden Tornadoes.  This was the fourth time this season that these two skilled opponents faced each other.

However this was the most important for many reasons.  Both of the teams were battling for fourth place in what is considered the hardest section in the WPIAL.  The top four teams from the section would be invited to compete in WPIAL playoffs.

This meant that even though it was the last regular season game, the winner would advance to playoffs and the loser’s season would be over right then and there.  That made the pressure level for both teams go up dramatically.

Along with this already pressure filled night, this game was Seneca Valley’s senior night which meant that there was a large crowd in attendance.

After 10 minutes of warm up, both sides stopped and then the seniors for Butler were announced.  Next the 5 Seneca Valley seniors Kris Baier, Tyler Blinn, Bradley Hart, Patrick Messmer, and Alex Synder, lined up with their parents and walked through a line of the younger players.  After a brief summary of the players the seniors and their parents lined up in a row and the younger players gave each of the seniors a box of cereal.

Eating cereal was a tradition that started earlier in the year and the players would pretend to eat cereal after a big play.  It was so popular that keep eating that cereal became a motto for the team.

Once the senior festivities were over, warm ups continued and finally the game started.  Both sides handled the pressure well and brought their A game.  Both teams had great play followed by great play.  With the crowd into it and the home crowd advantage the first two games went to the Raiders by a point difference of two and three points.

Down by two games, Butler’s momentum started to slow down and the Raiders smelled victory in air and found a way to go even harder than before.  The third game ended with a powerful kill by Patrick Messmer.  After the kill the gym erupted with noise and the crowd raced onto the court to celebrate with the team.

With the win the Raiders clinched a playoff berth and ended their rival’s season.