The Butler Area High School girls' volleyball program has claimed only one section title in its history and that came in 1976 when Linda Gould Smith was a member of that team.

"Linda's daughter, Becky Smith, is a senior this year," said Meghan Lucas, Butler's current coach. "It would be great if Becky was a member of Butler's second section championship team."

Lucas enters her sixth season at Butler with an experienced squad that is capable of reaching that goal.

"We had three seniors on last year's team and only one was a starter," Lucas said. "It's not often that a coach has five starters back. And to have the daughter of a member of our last championship team, maybe it's an omen."

Smith is a 6-foot-2 senior who is used as both a setter and middle hitter.

"Becky and Stephanie Mock [a 5-3 senior libero] have been starters since they were freshmen," Lucas said. "Becky and Stephanie both played for the Pittsburgh Three Rivers North club team that qualified for the national tournament in Dallas. Both were also voted to the All-Section 3-AAA team last year."

Mock was also voted to the third team of the WPIAL Class AAA All-Star team.

"The program has come a long way since I took over," Lucas said. "In 2006, we qualified for the WPIAL playoffs for the first time in more than 10 years. We fell short of a playoff berth last year after placing fourth in the section.

"Our goal this year is to return to the playoffs and hopefully win another section title. It's been a long time since our first section title. It would be great to add another this season, but it's never easy in this section."

This year is no different.

Section 3 has had at least one team advance to the WPIAL semifinals since 2000. And in five of those eight years, two teams advanced to the final four. Seneca Valley won the section title last year and North Allegheny finished second. The two met again in the WPIAL consolation for third place. North Allegheny won that match and eventually placed third in the PIAA.

"We have four solid teams in this section, but only three can qualify for the WPIAL playoffs," Lucas said, also referring to North Allegheny, Seneca Valley, and Pine-Richland. "It should come down to a battle between the four of us for the three playoff spots and the section title."

Butler opened its Section 3 schedule on Tuesday with a 3-0 win against North Hills. The Golden Tornado was scheduled to play Oakland Catholic Thursday and competed in the Shaler tournament yesterday.

"Our first big test in the section is Tuesday," Lucas said. "We play at Pine-Richland, then play host to North Allegheny on Thursday. We can gain a lot of respect and build confidence if we can win one or both of those matches."

Butler opened the season on Labor Day weekend by sponsoring an eight-team tournament. The Tornado went undefeated until the the title match, where they lost, 2-1, to Hopewell, the defending WPIAL Class AA champs.

"We beat Kiski Area, Bishop Canevin and Bethel Park in the preliminary round-robin, then beat Council Rock South and Latrobe in the playoff round," Lucas said.

Smith and Mock are two of six returning letter-winners. The others are 5-10 senior middle hitter Rachel Doutt, 5-10 junior setter Amanda Huey, 5-9 junior middle hitter Abbie Druschel and 5-8 junior outside hitter Brynn Maxwell.

"I don't have a set lineup," Lucas said. "Sometimes Linda is our setter, other times Amanda does the setting, and sometimes we have both. It all depends on whom we are playing. We use Rachel at all the hitting positions and her specialty is blocking."

Newcomers to the lineup who are seeing significant playing time are 5-6 junior defensive specialist Chelsea Pallone, 5-8 junior outside hitter Marina Gracik, 5-7 junior defensive specialist Danielle Lloyd, 5-10 junior middle hitter Lyndsy Wittebort, 5-7 junior defensive specialist Shayne Lantz and 5-5 junior defensive specialist Jocelyn Bachman.