Seneca Valley, North Allegheny take top 2 seeds in Class 3A WPIAL volleyball bracket

By: Michael Love
Friday, May 13, 2022 | 5:17 PM

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Seneca Valley and Our Lady of the Sacred Heart are the No. 1 seeds in Class 3A and 2A for the WPIAL playoffs as both brackets were revealed Friday afternoon.

The Raiders and North Allegheny, the No. 2 seed, finished tied at the top of the Section 2 standings and split their season series. Seneca Valley gets the nod at No. 1 after beating North Allegheny, 3-1, in their section clash on Tuesday.

Seneca Valley is seeking its first WPIAL boys volleyball title, while North Allegheny, the four-time defending champ, seeks its 22nd WPIAL title overall since its first in 1985.

Only the Raiders and Tigers received first-round byes as two of the three sections had five teams qualify, giving the Class 3A field 14 teams.

Hempfield, co-champions of Section 3 with Norwin at 11-1, is the No. 3 seed. Shaler, the third-place team from Section 2, is seeded fourth.

Norwin is seeded fifth, while Penn-Trafford, last year’s third-place finisher, is the sixth seed.

The Warriors were the most recent Class 3A champion before North Allegheny began its current run. They won it all in 2016.

Five of the six first-round matches in Class 3A are Tuesday at the home of the higher seed. The only one at a neutral site is the 8-9 matchup between Canon-McMillan and Butler, which will be played at Upper St. Clair.

The four quarterfinal matchups are set for Thursday.

In Class 2A, Section 1’s talent level was recognized by the committee as the top three in the section are the top three in the bracket.

OLSH, which won Section 1 with a 9-1 record, is the No. 1 seed. North Catholic, which split with OLSH and finished runner up in the section, is the No. 2 seed. Montour was No. 3 in the section and is No. 3 in the bracket.

The Chargers, Trojans and Spartans each receive byes to Thursday’s quarterfinals. The Class 2A bracket features 13 teams as Section 2 had five teams qualify.

Ambridge, the fourth-place team from Section 1, is the No. 5 seed and will face perennial playoff qualifier Deer Lakes in the first round Tuesday at Shaler. The Bridgers have won nine WPIAL titles since the WPIAL went to two classifications in 2007, and they captured an additional title in 2002.

Gateway, the champions of Section 2 with an 8-0 record, crashed the Section 1 seeding party and is slotted at No. 4. The Gators will face No. 13 Keystone Oaks.

Defending Class 2A champion Seton LaSalle, the winner of Section 3 at 10-0, is seeded sixth, and will take on No. 11 Mars on Tuesday at Gateway.

All five Class 2A first-round matchups will be Tuesday evening, and four of the five will be at neutral sites. Gateway will host Keystone Oaks.

The WPIAL championship matches for Class 3A and Class 2A will be at 6 and 8 p.m. May 25 at the UPMC Events Center at Robert Morris.

There also will be consolation matches as the top three teams from both classifications earn berths to the PIAA playoffs.

Class 3A

First Round

Tuesday’s schedule

No. 1 Seneca Valley – bye

No. 8 Canon-McMIllan vs. No. 9 Butler, 6 p.m., Upper St. Clair

No. 13 Moon at No. 4 Shaler, 7:30 p.m.

No. 12 Fox Chapel at No. 5 Norwin, 7:30 p.m.

No. 2 North Allegheny — bye

No. 10 Latrobe at No. 7 Upper St. Clair, 7:30 p.m.

No. 14 Bethel Park at No. 3 Hempfield, 7:30 p.m.

No. 11 Peters Township at No. 6 Penn-Trafford

Class 2A

First round

Tuesday’s schedule

No. 1 OLSH – bye

No. 8 Plum vs. No. 9 Thomas Jefferson, 6 p.m., Norwin

No. 13 Keystone Oaks at No. 4 Gateway, 7:30 p.m.

No. 5 Ambridge vs. No. 12 Deer Lakes, 6 p.m., Shaler

No. 2 North Catholic – bye

No. 7 Trinity vs. No. 10 Derry, 6 p.m., Hempfield

No. 3 Montour – bye

No. 6 Seton LaSalle vs. No. 11 Mars, 6 p.m., Gateway

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.