It wasn't dramatic. But it sure was effective -- and rewarding. 

The Hamline women's basketball team grabbed an early lead and never gave it up, defeating St. Olaf by 70-56 Wednesday in Northfield. The triumph clinched a winning season for head coach Alex Focke's team -- the first time a HU women's team achieved topped that barrier since the 2012-13 season when they went 14-12 and advanced to the MIAC playoffs. 

HU won just 12 games total the previous three seasons combined.

Reilly Geistfeld had a very productive night to lead the Piper offense. The junior threw in 27 points -- one short of a career high -- and her eighth double-double of the season with a dozen rebounds. With one game to play in the season, Geistfeld is the top scorer in the conference at 17.1 points per game. The junior also leads in Free Throws made with 102 and is fourth in Rebounds with 206.

Morgen Coleman scored 14 points and Chan'el Anderson-Manning had 10 with five rebounds and a pair of steals for the Pipers, who are 8-9 in MIAC play and are in seventh place, one game behind St. Mary's. HU can make the playoffs as the sixth seed if they defeat Bethel Saturday at Hutton Arena and St. Mary's loses at home to St. Thomas. The Pipers own the tiebreaker because they defeated the Cardinals in their only meeting, 67-66, on January 2.

HU jumped to a 17-10 first quarter lead and extended it to 37-25 by halftime. The Oles worked it back to six points at 51-45 after three quarters. They scored the first bucket of the fourth quarter to make it 51-47 but Geistfeld responded with a pair of layups. STO got within half a dozen at 59-53 with six minutes left but Geistfeld and Coleman fired in four points apiece in an 8-0 run to put the game away. 

The regular season finale against the Royals starts at 1:00 p.m.