She is not a new face. But she has a new role. Maggie Meixl is the Acting Head Coach for the 2017 Piper volleyball team that opens training camp drills Saturday, August 19 at Hutton Arena. Meixl, who has been an assistant coach the past two seasons, will have several familiar charges to work with this fall. There are six seniors on the team. Four of them -- OH Cass Bittle, DS/OH Marisa Franco, and OH Danica Hanson -- saw considerable court time last year as the Pipers went 12-10 overall -- the fourth plus .500 seasons in the past five years. (Their 5-6 MIAC mark had them in a tie for sixth place -- the final postseason spot. But HU lost out on tiebreakers and did not advance to the postseason.)

Morgen Coleman (pictured), who led HU as a freshman with 632 sets last year, is back as well.

HU has two weeks to ready themselves for matches that count. The season opens with a pair of matches against North Central (Minnesota) and Wis-River Falls on Friday, September 1 in a tournament at St. Olaf. HU will face Martin Luther the next day in Northfield. The Hutton Arena slate starts on Wednesday, September 6 against Crown (4:00 p.m.) and Wis-River Falls (8:00 p.m.). The MIAC season opener is Wednesday, September 13 against Gustavus Adolphus at Hutton at 7:00 p.m.