After nearly an entire roster of players had to be replaced this season due to graduation, Dave Sylvester anticipated a significant amount of growing pains.

With more than half the season completed, Sylvester is still waiting. This is one waiting game that he doesn't mind.

The Seneca Valley girls' have raced to a 12-0-1 record this season and a dominating 10-0 mark in Section 2-AAA before last night's match against Shaler Area.

The section title is all but clinched as the second place team in the section, North Allegheny, already has three section losses.

"I am a little surprised considering all the seniors we lost," Sylvester said. "I really thought we would have some growing pains, but up until this point we have not."

The fast start to the season was especially nice to see for the returning players who last remembered wearing their Seneca Valley uniforms in a disappointing quarterfinal playoff loss to Penn-Trafford in the second round of penalty kicks.

While there may have been a lot of pieces to replace and the roster is a younger one, the Raiders by no means entered the season with an empty cupboard. Most of the players who are back played on last season's team that went 17-3 and on the 2007 team that captured the WPIAL Class AAA crown.

Senior captain Grace Emmerling was around for those teams but did not get many opportunities to contribute as she battled season-ending injuries twice. Her story is one of perseverance.

Emmerling's freshman season was lost to a torn ACL. Her sophomore year it was a broken collarbone that required surgery and required her to watch from the sidelines once again.

She started to see significant playing time last season as she recovered from the injuries. Now in her senior year, she is a captain and full-time starter.

"She is a good role model for the other girls," Sylvester said. "She has worked really hard. She is a good kid and she is a good leader for the younger girls."

Emmerling starts at outside midfielder or defensive back. She has already scored a pair of goals this season.

"It is great to be back out here," Emmerling said. "And to be able to contribute to our success it is just awesome."

The two other senior captains for Seneca Valley are Kate Kelly and Mandy Cerminara. Both rotate between forward and midfield and have seen action the last few seasons. Cerminara leads the team in goals while Kelly leads in assists. Goalie Kiara Lydon and midfielder Shayna Elser also return as starters.

The trio of senior captains and Lydon and Elser are mostly surrounded by a supporting cast that is as young as it is talented.

Sophomore Reagan Dobbins is a returning starter on defense. She is joined back there by a pair of freshmen, Amy Kolor and Melissa Lynskey. Another freshman, Misha Demchuk, is a starter at a position usually reserved for veteran players, central midfield. Also playing in the central midfield area is sophomore Madison Kozlawski.

Junior Mandy Kasperski and freshman Morgan Williams alternate starting and sophomore Katie Riley has been the Raiders most productive player off the bench. She spells Kozlawski in the midfield on most occasions.

"I knew that we had freshmen and sophomores who could play," Sylvester said.

"I thought our freshman class was going to be decent, but when you start plugging holes with freshmen and sophomores you expect that you are going to have some freshman and sophomore mistakes. We have not really seen that. They have really played well."

Seneca Valley travels to play North Allegheny Monday and then closes its regular season with section games against Knoch and at Butler.

Mike White's "High School Sports Edition" videos are featured exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.