(Cedar Rapids, Iowa) The Butler County Community College volleyball squad is 22-0, seeded third in the 16-team National Junior College Athletic Association Division III national championship tournament and faces Westchester Community College, Valhalla, N.Y., in the first round at 10 a.m. Eastern Thursday in the Alliant Energy Powerhouse Arena.
Westchester Community College is 21-3 and seeded No. 14.
“This is what we have been working for all season,” BC3 defensive specialist Sarah Lucas said after the Pioneers earned an automatic berth to the postseason pinnacle Nov. 1 with a 3-2 victory over Sandhills Community College, Pinehurst, N.C., in the NJCAA Division III Mid-Atlantic District championship.
BC3 with the victory against Sandhills secured a second consecutive trip to the national championship tournament for the first time in program history.
“I’m so excited to see what we do at nationals,” Pioneers setter Anora Robare said after the victory against Sandhills. “This was the best match that we played and the first time that we took it to five sets. And we played so well.”
BC3 ranks second in hitting percentage among 86 Division III programs at .291. The Pioneers are third in blocks per set at 2.56, third in points per set at 17.3, seventh in kills per set at 11.56 and 10th in total blocks with 185.
All-American middle hitter Josie Russo is second in hitting percentage among Division III players at .438 and fourth in blocks per set at 1.38. Robare is ninth in assists per set at 9.13.
The Pioneers’ appearance in the national championship tournament is the program’s fifth. BC3 placed fifth in 2002, sixth in 2021 and in 2009, and ninth in 2024 – when it received an at-large invitation.
The winner of the first-round match advances to a quarterfinal contest at 6:30 p.m. Eastern Thursday against either the College of DuPage (25-12) or Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute (19-9).
The College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn, Ill., is seeded sixth in the tournament and Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute, Hudson, N.C., 11th.
Other teams in BC3’s bracket are No. 2 seed Minnesota West, 35-4; No. 15 Monroe Bronx, 20-5; No. 7 Hudson Valley, 25-0; and No. 10 Dallas College Brookhaven, 15-12.
The opposing bracket features No. 1 seed Dallas College Eastfield, 27-1; No. 16 Holyoke, 20-3; No. 8 Northampton, 28-1; No. 9 Finger Lakes, 27-3; No. 4 Rochester, 22-8; No. 13 Brookdale, 16-2; No. 5 Sandhills, 33-3; and No. 12 St. Cloud Tech, 17-14.
The national championship tournament final is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Eastern Saturday.
Joining Lucas, Robare and Russo on BC3’s squad are Molly Bissell, Emmy Fisher, Summer Haney, Kristen Gallagher, Marly Koleno, Marissa Metzka, Maeggie Wysocki and Dakota Weldon.
Metzka, a middle hitter, Bissell, an outside hitter, and Robare are Slippery Rock Area High School graduates; Weldon, an outside hitter, and Haney, a defensive specialist, Laurel; Koleno and Wysocki, defensive specialists, Apollo-Ridge; Gallagher, setter, Knoch; and Fisher, opposite hitter, Seneca Valley.
Russo is a graduate of Freeport and Lucas, of Butler.
Haney, Koleno and Russo are registered nursing students at BC3; Bissell and Weldon, business administration; Fisher, Gallagher and Metzka, general studies; Lucas, technical trades-cosmetology management option; Robare, medical coding and billing specialist; and Wysocki, business management.