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This is a different year and a more matured Piper team than the Tommies had seen in years past. Hamline brought their best to the court and defeated the University of St. Thomas, 30-24, 30-23, 27-30, 33-35, 15-10. The victory on Oct. 18 snapped the 11-match skid and furthered the ascension of Coach Gina Rollie’s Pipers squad, up the MIAC standings.

“If we show up and play well, we can beat anyone,” said Coach Rollie.

Both teams were evenly matched; Hamline with a 5-4 record and St. Thomas with a record of 6-3. Hamline won the first two games of the match and lost the third and fourth before putting the Tommies away in match five. The Pipers had significant contributions from their veteran leaders to win the day.

The kills have been coming all season long for senior Dana Luiken and the Pipers. Lukien racked up 27 kills, first-year Tasha Simmons contributed 18, and junior Shelby Hyllengren had 17. Simmons also added 22 digs and sophomore Jenny Nichols led all players with 65 assists on the night. No other Piper had more than one assist. Junior Sara Burns had an all-around good game with five aces and 11 digs. As far as digs are concerned, the night belonged to senior Jenna Witt. Witt barely overshadowed her season average of digs to lead all Pipers with 27. Her 27 digs gave Witt sole possession of Hamline volleyball's all-time dig record. She surpassed the former record holder, Pam Aufderhar on the all-time list with 1,725 digs for a career.

Witt has started for Hamline since her first year on campus and first conceived the notion of breaking the record after accumulating over 400 digs in year one.

“After my first year, I knew if I continued on that pace, I could get the record but I didn’t focus on it [the digs record] because it was in the future,” said Witt.

The Pipers have experienced great success this season, their best since Rollie began her tenure four years ago. In her first three seasons, the Pipers recorded 36 wins and 46 losses before accumulating a record of 16-7 overall and 6-4 in the MIAC, this season.

“We just talk about our team and what we can do. We’re not intimidated by anyone,” said Rollie.

The Pipers have caught a lot of teams by surprise this season and have been playing the role of the underdog. Before the volleyball season started in September, the MIAC preseason coaches poll was released. The poll is the coaches’ predictions of what place the teams will finish the season, hardly an exact science. The polls had the Pipers finishing no higher than tenth of 12 teams. The Concordia Cobbers (2005 MIAC champions) were selected to finish first and are well on their goal to bring that prediction to fruition with their record of (10-0) in the conference. Defying the preseason predictions of most volleyball prognosticators, the Pipers now find themselves in fourth place atop the MIAC standings.

Hamline’s play against the Tommies continues to inch the Pipers closer to the realization of their collective goal: to earn a MIAC playoff spot. It is within the realm of possibility that Hamline lands a playoff berth anywhere between the third and sixth seed. The appearance would be the first for Hamline since the current six-team playoff format was put into place six years ago. With the loss, St. Thomas fell to fifth in the MIAC and their record became 21-5 and 6-4.

Looking ahead to the final weeks of the season, Hamline maybe able to host a playoff game with a victory and are relying on fans to show up at Augsburg and make the difference. The Pipers will play their final MIAC game of the year at Augsburg. First serve is set to sail at 7 p.m. on Oct. 25. The game will determine who, where, and when the Pipers will play if they earn a playoff berth.