The Beaver County Christian boys' volleyball program can be summed up with five words: new, small, inexperienced and surprisingly successful.

Beaver County Christian is one of two new teams in the WPIAL this season. The Eagles have the smallest enrollment for a school with a volleyball team in not only the WPIAL, but also the PIAA.

"We are by far the smallest school," Eagles coach Christen Adels said. "It isn't even close. Our boys' enrollment from grades nine through 12 is 37 and 12 are playing volleyball."

Beaver County Christian is one of only three boys' volleyball teams in the PIAA that have an enrollment of less than 100 students. The other two are Conneaut Valley (93) and Reading Central Catholic (95). The next smallest competing school in the WPIAL is Elderton (115).

"Most of the kids at Beaver County Christian are playing more than one sport," Adels said. "Almost everybody on my team plays soccer. A few of them also play basketball. In fact, three seniors on my squad are basketball players whom I talked into trying volleyball."

Beaver County Christian is making its WPIAL debut this season in Class AA as one of seven teams entered in Section 1.

"When I saw the [WPIAL] alignment, it was easy to see that Section 1 was the strongest of the three Class AA sections," Adels said. "I had no idea what to expect."

Beaver County Christian toyed with the idea of adding a boys' volleyball program the previous two years and finally took the plunge this year.

"We entered a couple tournaments as an independent team the past two years, but only had a dozen or so practices before those appearances," Adels said. "So the kids had little or no experience coming into the season."

Despite the size and experience shortcomings, Beaver County Christian is off to a surprisingly good start.

The Eagles finished the first half of section play in third place with a 4-2 record. Their only losses were to Ambridge, the defending WPIAL champion and PIAA runner-up, and Montour, a perennial playoff team.

"It was pretty neat to open the season with wins against Hopewell and OLSH," Adels said. "Getting off to such a good start really helped."

Adels has found it a challenge to teach soccer and basketball players to play volleyball.

"Learning how to pass the ball and set up hitters has been the toughest thing to teach," he said. "Guys, by nature, want to spike the ball. They get frustrated having to pass the ball."

Not having a regulation-sized gymnasium hasn't helped the situation.

"We play our home matches at Geneva College," Adels said. "Our gym is smaller than a regulation-sized one. It's especially tough when it comes to jump serving. It's impossible to practice jump serves with such a small court. The same is true for learning how to receive jump serves."

Adels has used an eight-player rotation on her squad. Four are seniors, 6-foot-2 setter Sam Guthrie, 6-3 middle hitter Adam Kephart, 5-9 outside hitter Josiah Merola, and 5-6 outside hitter Danny Squire.

"Sam didn't have a lot of varsity experience, but had played enough to know what to do as a setter," Adels said. "It helps that he's got soft hands. He's a natural for setting. I wish he had a few more years of eligibility. The same is true for my other seniors."

The other four members of the varsity squad are 6-2 junior right-side hitter Charlie Noyes, 5-6 junior defensive specialist Michael Badzik, 5-9 sophomore middle hitter Jason Michalenko, and 5-6 freshman back-row specialist Andre Otte.

"Our goal coming into the season was to qualify for the WPIAL playoffs," Adels said. "I've since adjusted that goal to winning at least one match in the playoffs."

Adels also coaches the Beaver County Christian girls' team, which claimed a WPIAL Class AA title in its first season of competition in the league.

"It was a much different situation with the girls' team," Adels said. "The girls had been competing in the Southwestern Christian Athletic Conference prior to the move to the WPIAL."

Beaver County Christian opens the second half of section play tonight against visiting Hopewell.