(Butler, PA) The Butler County Community College volleyball team returns a postseason all-star and leader in digs from a 2025 national championship tournament qualifier when it opens its schedule Saturday ranked No. 7.

Sarah Lucas – and fellow defensive specialists Summer Haney and Maeggie Wysocki – are second-year players on a Pioneers team that hosts Erie Community College, Buffalo, N.Y., at 11 a.m. and at approximately 1:30 p.m. in the Field House on BC3’s main campus in Butler Township.

Outside hitter Madelyn Nosel, Warren Area High School’s single-season and career record holder in kills, is among nine first-year players on a BC3 team seeking the program’s 21st consecutive winning record under head coach Rob Snyder, whose squads are 502-174 through 27 seasons.

The program has been ranked in the Top 15 in Division III of the National Junior College Athletic Association in 37 of 41 polls dating to Oct. 4, 2021, including the past 18 in a row.

 

“Every year we have the same goal. We want to get to the national championship and compete. That doesn’t change.”

-- Rob Snyder, BC3 head volleyball coach

 

 

Lucas was selected to all-conference and to all-tournament squads in October while she was en route to 284 digs and the Pioneers, to a 23-0 start, a second consecutive berth in the NJCAA Division III national championship tournament in Iowa and a 24-2 finish.

“She is tenacious,” Snyder said. “She’s going to be the team leader, and she absolutely wants that.”

Wysocki added 160 digs and Haney 89 in a 2025 season in which the Pioneers captured the program’s 10th consecutive Western Pennsylvania Collegiate Conference title and seventh NJCAA Division III Region 20 crown in a row.

“They are all championship-experienced,” Snyder said, “and played on a really good team. Every year we have the same goal. We want to get to the national championship and compete. That doesn’t change.”

BC3 placed seventh in the 16-team national championship tournament in 2025, ninth in 2024, sixth in 2021 and in 2009, and fifth in 2002.

 

“We have to figure out where everybody fits with almost a whole new team. … But we have people who can play every position, so we have the pieces.”

-- Rob Snyder, BC3 head volleyball coach

 

Nosel in 2025 set Warren records with 453 kills in a season and with 1,061 in a career.

While Lucas will be the team leader, Nosel “will be our best all-round player,” Snyder said. “She’s a six-rotation player and more importantly a gamer.”

As is fellow first-year player Taylor Simon, a defensive specialist.

Simon during her career at Butler High had 497 digs, 59 assists and 51 service aces.

“She’s really quick and athletic,” Snyder said. “I’m excited about what she can bring to the program.”

Lucas is a graduate of Butler; Wysocki, of Apollo-Ridge; and Haney, of Laurel.

Joining Simon and Nosel as first-year players will be Teagan Fortuna, setter and opposite hitter, Laurel; Ellie Henricks, outside hitter, First Baptist Christian; Addison Henry, opposite hitter, Redbank Valley; Mackenzie Kurtz, middle hitter, Knoch; Bayliee Payne, defensive specialist and outside hitter, Butler; Addison Say, setter and opposite hitter, Keystone; Julia Stoepfel, middle hitter, Grove City; and Grace Thimons, defensive specialist, Deer Lakes.

“All good players,” Snyder said. “We have to figure out where everybody fits with almost a whole new team. We have a lot of work to do to get to where we need to go. But we have people who can play every position, so we have the pieces.”

Dallas College-Eastfield, winner of the past three national championship tournaments, is ranked No. 1 in the Division III preseason poll announced Aug. 17.

Say is enrolled in BC3’s general studies program; Haney, Henricks and Kurtz, in registered nursing; Stoepfel, Simon and Payne, in health care science; Lucas, Fortuna and Nosel, in technical trades-cosmetology management option; Wysocki and Henry, in business management; and Thimons, in marketing management.