Mira Costa Setter Stands Tall on the Court

Piper Hahn, Mira Costa High’s All-American volleyball player, waited for the Bishop Montgomery serve to clear the net in last week’s opening-round match in the Southern Section 5-A playoffs. Jen Streatfield bumped the serve to the middle of the court, and Amy Banachowski set the ball to the right side of the court where Hahn was waiting.

Hahn timed the flight of the ball perfectly, jumped high and slammed it over two Bishop Montgomery defenders into the back court for a side out.

The spectators in Mira Costa’s Fisher Gym checked again to see if it was the 5-foot-7 Hahn who had hit the ball.

Hahn loves to spike but says her “height didn’t permit me to become a hitter.”

Hahn is Mira Costa’s setter, and some consider her the best high school player in the country at that position.

She has led Mira Costa to a 21-0 record, including Tuesday’s 15-3, 15-12, 15-8 victory over Dos Pueblos in Goleta, and to the semifinals of the playoffs tonight, when the Mustangs will face Laguna Beach (19-1) at 7:30 at Redondo High.

In the first playoff match against Bishop Montgomery, Hahn had 18 assists and four kills.

Mira Costa is seeded No. 1 in the 18-team field, a familiar place for the Mustangs. The team has been ranked No. 1 in the 5-A Division since the start of the season and has held the No. 1 ranking in the country during the same period. The Mustangs are going for their fifth Southern Section championship in the 1980s.

Mira Costa Coach Dae Lea Aldrich and the players say Hahn is a major reason the team has remained on top.

“She’s so confident,” teammate Corie Davis said. “She pulls us together. She’s also very smart on the court.”

Said Aldrich: “She’s had a super year, she’s the strength of our team. She has been captain the last two years. She wants the team to win so much. I would say she’s a candidate for CIF Player of the Year, depending on how she does in the playoffs.”

Hahn’s sister, Lindsey, was CIF Player of the Year in 1985 and now plays at the University of Arizona.

Piper has a chance to follow in her sister’s footsteps, but her main goal is for the team to win the Southern Section and state Division I titles.

A gifted athlete, Hahn has the ability to turn poor passes into perfect sets. Against Bishop Montgomery, a Mira Costa player came up with a dig on a hard spike that bounced toward the stands. Hahn lunged at the ball with her left arm and flicked it back toward the court in a perfect arc for Kristal Attwood, who spiked for a kill.

Bishop Montgomery’s players looked at each other as if to ask, “What do we have to do to score a point off this team?”

You have to do a lot. Not only do you have to beat Hahn, you have to beat two other All-CIF players--Attwood and Heidi Eick. And several other Mustangs would be stars for most teams.

But even among the standouts, Hahn sticks out.

“No one was really surprised when Piper made varsity as a freshman,” Davis said. “She is such a good all-around athlete, everybody expected it.”

In her first year, the Mustangs won their last 5-A championship.

Hahn began playing volleyball with sister Lindsey on the beach as a youth. By the time she reached Mira Costa, she had club experience.

When volleyball season is over, Hahn laces on soccer cleats and plays on the Mira Costa girls varsity as a forward. After soccer season, Hahn becomes a sprinter for the track team.

At least she gets to rest at night, right? Wrong. Hahn is also a member of the student council, takes a demanding course load, including fourth-year Spanish and physics, and was a member of the Homecoming and Orientation committees.

“I keep busy,” she said.

After volleyball season, Hahn will be busy traveling around the country on recruiting trips. She plans to go to Duke, Stanford, UC Santa Barbara and San Diego State.

“I want to go where I can get a good education,” she said, “and perhaps travel abroad.”

Hahn has not given much thought to post-college possibilities in volleyball. “I’ll take things as they come,” she said.

The next thing on her agenda is tonight’s semifinal match. Whatever happens, Hahn realizes that her high school volleyball career is coming to a quick close. After the season, she plays club ball with several Mira Costa teammates. But there’s no place like high school.

“I like high school better than club (volleyball),” Hahn said. “There’s more pride involved, and we’re a really close team. I like my coach, I like my team.”

And, as anyone at Mira Costa will tell you, the feeling is mutual.