Faster, sound defense and to get a point each weekend are the goals for Piper women’s hockey, and so far they’ve held true.

“Every year I think we’ve continued to be in a better spot. I think it’s a big testament to our returners,” head coach Steve DeBus said. “I think it’s their time now. They’ve kind of had to go through some dismal years but I think it’s their time. They’re as capable as anybody to going out and having a great successful season.”

The Pipers opened their season this past weekend with a game last Friday, Nov. 14, at St. Kate’s, and played their home opener on Saturday, Nov. 15, at their new home rink Oscar Johnson Arena. The Pipers lost the opener 3-1 but managed to earn a point the following day at home with a 1-1 tie.

Junior defender Jenny Magill said two things that are different about this group compared to last year’s is their speed and their talent on defense.

“I’m confident in the people we’ve brought back to play ‘D’ and I just think the goalie situation is a lot better,” Magill said. “With people improving and the new girls coming in, we’re a lot quicker.”

The Pipers have added eight first-years to their roster, and junior forward Chelsea Koehn said as an upperclassmen it’s her responsibility to lead by example to prep them for college hockey.

“Being a junior this year, I’m just hoping that I can get the younger kids, the freshmen, to just look up to me and see my style of play of where I give it all and show them what it’s like to be a college athlete and help them for the future,” Koehn said.

Senior forward Jordan Verleye is confident the Pipers can win more games this year with the help of the first-years. Last year, they finished 7-16-2 with eight points in the MIAC.

“We’re hoping to do a little better than we did last year; we got a lot of good freshmen,” Verleye said. “Hopefully they can help us win a few games this year.”

She said in order for the team to be successful this year, everyone is going to have to pitch in.

“It’s definitely a team sport. It takes everyone on the ice to make things happen,” Verleye said.

The Pipers have been slotted to finish last of the 10 team’s in the MIAC in the 2014-2015 Women’s Hockey Preseason Coaches’ Poll. Koehn wants to prove them wrong and is confident the Pipers can finish above .500 this year.

Verleye said the team’s improved speed definitely gives them a chance to do such.

“We are also a very fast team and we can keep up with just about anybody in this league,” Verleye said.

Verleye said the team has been adamantly working on being defensively sound this year.

“We worked on playing more defensive hockey,” she said. “We think that if we play better defensively,  more things will happen for us in the offensive zone.”

The team atmosphere this year has DeBus fired up for the season.

“It’s harmonious, it’s full of excitement, it’s full of energy,” he said. “Everyday we just seemed to add another piece to the puzzle and get better with something and understanding kind of what we need to do, how we need to it and why we need to do it. ”

He said the team was going into last weekend’s series with one goal in mind.

“We’ll get points this weekend. That’s our goal, we got to get points every weekend,” DeBus said.

In the season opener, junior goalie Mary Shefveland recorded 28 saves in her first career start under the net and it was the first time she’s seen action since Nov. 1, 2013. The Pipers defense managed to hold the Wildcats down to one goal in the first two periods.

The Pipers tied the game in the third, with a goal by sophomore forward Kasey Marquardt assisted by junior Haleigh Bolton and first-year Jaimee Nowicki. However, the Wildcats managed to separate themselves later in the third period and scored two goals to close the game out 3-1.

In the next game, the Pipers came to play a full 60 minutes. Sophomore Katie Beckman started as goalie and finished the night with 22 saves and only one goal allowed, which came in the opening period during a Pipers penalty kill.

The Pipers’ defense was solid and created opportunities for their offense as they outshot the Wildcats 40-23. However, only one of those shots registered a tally on the scoreboard and it came in the second period when Koehn found Verleye for a goal to tie the game at 1-1. The game eventually went to overtime and then resulted in a tie. The Pipers earned their first point of the season in their opening series.

The Pipers will face off with Gustavus for their next series. They’ll  travel to St. Peters on Friday, Nov. 21, and host the Gusties at Oscar Johnson Arena Saturday night, Nov. 22.

As the season progresses, DeBus said he wants to see his team make a name for themselves.

“I want this team’s identity to be a very hardworking 60-minute team that’s just really tough to play against,” DeBus said. “We’re going to make everybody fight to the nail for what they’re going to get. Sometimes you’re going to win, sometimes you’re going to lose but if things don’t go the way we want, we want that other team to know they had to bring their ‘A’ game.”