BRADENTON — For the past two seasons, Paige Pierro had a comfortable seat near Manatee High volleyball coach Jessica Riester-Hinkle and a great view of a very good team. But Courtney McDonald, Taylor Mealy and last fall’s seven other seniors who won 90 times in just four seasons — despite an 0-9 record against rival Venice — were gone Tuesday night. Suddenly, Pierro was a senior, a starter and a captain.

Guess who was there to stare her down in her regular season opener.

Yes, it was Venice. And things didn’t go very well for the Hurricanes.

The Indians’ 25-12, 25-8, 25-12 rout of Manatee took all of 49 minutes.

Pierro, Taylor Jones and junior Hailey Hall, the only players with any varsity experience, all started. But the ’Canes struggled to even dent a stat sheet — Jones, Hall and senior Shelby Knox had one kill apiece, freshman Kayla Armer and Knox each had a block, and no Manatee player served an ace.

Welcome to 2009.

“You’d be foolish not to treat this team a little differently,” Hinkle said. “These girls just can’t walk the line like the other teams did. But do I think that eventually they can? Yes.”

Just 357 days earlier, this had been the Match of 2008 — Venice escaped at home with a 20-25, 25-10, 19-25, 25-9, 15-8 victory last Sept. 16 in a battle between the teams that would remain Nos. 1 and 2 in the Herald-Tribune’s Super 7 all season long.

The Indians dominated the rematch in the district finals, though, and within a few days the careers of McDonald, Mealy and Co. ended with a stunning loss at St. Petersburg Lakewood.

“It’s not like my expectations are lower,” Hinkle said. “If these girls don’t start doing the things I’m teaching them to do, then it will be a disappointment. But right now, the game is back to the basics.”

Even without flu-ridden senior Jillian Allen, the Indians (4-0 overall, 1-0 in Class 5A-District 10) were dominating. Autumn Duyn had seven kills, six aces and 10 digs and Taylor Capasso added five aces, eight digs and 28 assists. Dorothy Rahal, who’s moved from outside hitter to libero, accumulated 10 digs.

Last week, Venice — which returned its entire roster intact — easily dismantled what were arguably the preseason’s next three-best teams, Riverview, Braden River and Southeast.

The Indians have yet to give up more than 13 points in any game.

“(Manatee) is obviously very young, but they’ve got a lot of height and it’s early in the season,” said Venice coach Brian Wheatley, who compared the Hurricanes’ plight to his 2004 team, which graduated eight seniors. Venice still managed to win a state title in ’05.

“As long as the coach and the players stay on the same page, they’ll get better.”

Manatee did take leads of 2-0 and 4-2 in the second game, but the seven-time defending district champions quickly reversed that with a pair of 7-0 runs.

“I was so used to nine leaders being on the court, now everyone’s new,” said Pierro, a 5-foot-8 outside hitter. “It’s definitely different. We’re starting a little lower than last year, we’re still building fundamentals.”

Venice hosts nationally ranked Tallahassee Leon at 5:30 p.m. Friday. Anyone who buys a ticket to the Indians’ football game against Braden River gets free admission to the volleyball match.

On Saturday, the Indians play Tampa Berkeley Prep in the USF Sun Dome (3 p.m.) as a prelude to the Tampa Twice Tournament matches (Florida-Washington and USF-Minnesota).

By DONNIE WILKIE