They're moving into unchartered waters. And, like all good explorers, they are excited to do so.

Hamline's women's basketball team plays its first postseason game in four years Tuesday, February 19, when they travel to St. Joseph, Minn. to face St. Benedict in a first round MIAC playoff game.

Tipoff at Claire Lynch Hall is 7:30 p.m.

The Pipers (14-11 overall, 14-8 MIAC) won eight of their last nine games to finish in a  tie for 5th place with Gustavus in the conference standings. The good news after that is, thanks to a series of tiebreakers, they get the higher seed. The bad news is that sends them up against one of the two conference foes they did not defeat during the regular season.

No matter. They are one of just six survivors ... and that is, after all, the whole idea.

It has been a while since these teams faced each other. the first meeting was on November 30 in St. Joe, an 87-72 Piper setback. HU fell into a 42-34 halftime hold and couldn't dig out in time. 

The rematch on January 16 at Hutton Arena was a different story. The Pipers led 29-27, at the intermission. The game was tied at 43 with 10 minutes left when the Balzers scored five in a row to take the lead for good. But the Pipers stayed within range most of the rest of the way, finally falling 64-55. 

Hamline heads into the game on a six-game road winning streak. They have survived a pair of close calls along the way, winning OT games at Concordia and, last Saturday, at Carleton. 

They enter the fray with the league's top scorer and one of the top three -point shooters in the country (Steph Pilgrim, 16.2 ppg, 2.8 treys, in the top 20 nationally pictured with ball), a two-pronged threat in this week's AOW, Jordan Sammons (second in the league in rebounds, third in scoring), two veteran guards (Kara Poirier, Je'Naya Brown) and a center who is a three-point threat (Cassidy Vogt). But they will get tested by a team that has a history of winning and is happy to be back in the playoffs after kissing last year for the first time ever.

This the fourth time HU has made it to the first round of the postseason. This has been where it has ended in the past. But this Piper team has been exceeding expectations (they were picked for ninth in the preseason) and have been rewriting the record book all season.

A Star Tribune piece on their season can be read by clicking here. 

The next chapter starts at 7:30 p.m. tonight. A victory tonight would send the Pipers to either Concordia or St. Thomas Thursday night.