As Dayton greeted the team in the foyer of the Minnesota Governor’s Residence, head coach Thanh Pham gave him a purple Tommie volleyball national championship T-shirt. According to Dayton, “Purple is my favorite color.”

Dayton commented on how he invites national championship teams of all sports to the mansion on Summit Avenue, mentioning the Minnesota Lynx, who won the WNBA championship in 2011. “But I’ve never had a men’s team here,” he said.

Dayton shows off his new St. Thomas volleyball national champions T-shirt. (Photo by Mike Ekern ’02)

After a tour of the residence on which the team met the governor’s German shepherds Wanamingo and Itasca, breakfast was served in the solarium, a room that was once visited by Eleanor Roosevelt. Dayton sat across from Pham, who recalled the environment in the arena as the Tommies took on Calvin College in the national championship in November.

“They had about 3,500 fans there. We had about 60, but they were a loud 60,” Pham said. The game took place at Hope College in Holland, Mich., about a half-hour from Calvin’s campus. Dayton commented, “So it was basically a home game for them.”

Having the opportunity to meet the governor was a special experience for the team, according to Pham: “Winning the championship has allowed us to do some fun things and meet so many new people. Meeting the governor is definitely something the girls will never forget.”

Pham was also impressed seeing his players off the court in more of a social setting: “To get to see them interact with each other and other people gives me a whole different perspective. It reminds me that they will be professionals in something other than volleyball someday.”

Senior Kia Johnson described meeting the governor as an honor. “Getting to do something like this shows how all our hard work has paid off,” she said.

Kia Johnson shakes hands with Dayton. (Photo by Mike Ekern ’02)

Junior Nicole Potts recognized the breakfast as a once in a lifetime opportunity. “Although, I suppose we could meet him again next year,” she said. “This seems like a place that you always just drive by and wonder what it’s like inside.”

Sophomore Sydney Westfield thought it was a rare experience as well. “Not many people get to meet him, let alone have breakfast with him,” she said.

Sophomore and the national tournament’s Most Outstanding Player award winner Jill Greenfield found Dayton to be very personable: “He took the time to get to know each one of and ask us where we are from.”

As the team said goodbye to Dayton, Greenfield shook his hand and said, “Purple looks good on you.”

In the 2012 season, the Tommies posted a 40-1 record, an all-time conference best for victories and winning percentage in volleyball. During the national tournament, the Tommies became the second team in the 32-year history of D-III nationals to rally from a 2-0 set deficit and win the last three sets of the championship match.

Baseball players hoisted Dennis Denning above their heads in 2009, and he was delighted but then horrified that they would drop him. Steve Fritz bear-hugged basketball players in 2011 and hours later still wore the remnants of a net they cut down. Thanh Pham crouched on the sidelines last November with a hand to his eyes to wipe away tears as his volleyball players celebrated.

Steve Fritz, championship net around his neck, hugs Teddy Archer March 19, 2011 after the men’s basketball team took first place in the nation. (Photo by Mike Ekern ’02)

The images remain indelible, and they should. The moments defined excellence. They rewarded hard and selfless work. They generated recognition. They opened doors.

And perhaps most importantly, they engendered pride. They gave people, even casual observers, a chance to simply say, “We’re No. 1.”

Everybody likes to be No. 1. Few get the opportunity, and sometimes things don’t work out. As much success as St. Thomas has had in winning 15 national championships in eight different NCAA Division III sports, second only to Williams College’s nine champion sports, the Tommies also have experienced their share of painful defeats. Football was the most recent national runner-up, one of 12 second place finishes (also by teams in baseball, softball, men’s hockey, women’s cross country and women’s outdoor track).

Pham and Fritz believe national championships are important for a team, a program and an institution.

A team? “It’s validation,” said Pham, whose Tommies lost first-round matches in the 2010 and 2011 national tournaments but won the 2012 crown in five sets after trailing No. 1 Calvin 0-2. “Work hard and good things will happen. You can be down, but don’t lose faith. There’s always a solution; you just have to find it. That this team won speaks volumes to its character, its resilience and its desire.”

A program? “It gives you a certain amount of status,” said Fritz, athletic director since 1992, who retired after 31 years as men’s basketball coach when the Tommies won the 2011 title. “When you recruit, people know you have a good program. It opens doors.”

Tommie baseball players hoist their trophy and their head coach, Dennis Denning, onto their shoulders following a victory over Wooster College May 26, 2009 to take the national title. (Photo by Mike Ekern ’02)

An institution? “It draws attention to St. Thomas in a positive manner – in how prospective students will look at us, in how students here will share in our joy, and in how our alumni can be very proud of their school,” Pham said.

Fritz agrees and likes to call sports “a front porch.” The success of any given team “becomes part of the success of the entire institution,” he said. “It’s very visible” and – at a time when higher education faces growing criticism for costs and relevance – “it’s good news.”

Glenn Caruso knows all of that as he, too, pursues a national title. Two days before his football team played Mount Union, he spoke with his players as they sat on a Virginia field after practice.

“Look around,” he said. “This is where we will play for the national championship. There are 238 teams (in Division III), and only two are left. You are one of them.”

The Tommies didn’t quite get to the top in that game. But I have no doubt they will in the future, and I can hardly wait to see the look on Caruso’s face. It will be indelible.

Read more from St. Thomas Magazine.

Dr. Susan Alexander

Our good friend Title IX turned 40 this year.

And do we have a present for her – the NCAA Division III championship volleyball team. Now, I realize that schools in Division III give her champions every year, but our champions are something special.

Recently, I saw a video clip of the St. Thomas team; its spirit and sense of family shone through. Ali Wahlin, international studies major, may have best expressed the closeness of the team when she said, “Any time I need anything, I count on my teammates.” Also shining was Coach Thanh Pham, whose low-key, understated manner inspired the team more than any rah-rah stereotype could have.

I also learned what a “dig” is – the MIAC career record now held by Kaiti Wachter, a legal studies in business major.

But the academic in me probably resonates most with Kia Johnson – biology major, UST Dease scholar, one of nine Minnesota winners of a Goldwater Scholarship and one of 15 recipients nationwide of the UNCF/Merck Science Research Scholarship. For two out of the last three years, Kia has possessed the highest grade point average of all the volleyball players in the national playoffs. Kia talks about the balance that volleyball gives to her academic life.

The late Professor Patricia Howe, Ph.D. in history and alternate for the U.S. Olympic swimming team, always told me that women’s sports complement women’s academic performance. Klutzes like me tended to doubt that claim. Now I believe her.

St. Thomas finished 40-1 and became the first MIAC program to win a national team championship in volleyball. Coach Thanh Pham’s team capped off the title with a 3-2 comeback win over No. 1-ranked Calvin (Mich.) on Nov. 17 in Holland, Mich.

There are 420 teams that compete in Division III volleyball. The Tommies are one of two programs to reach the eight-team national tournament in each of the last three seasons.

The national team championship was the sixth by a Tommie team in the last 13 years. St. Thomas now has won NCAA team titles in eight different sports, a feat surpassed by only one Division III instiution — Williams (Mass.), with nine.

2012 Tommie Volleyball milestones

• NCAA champions – first by any MIAC volleyball program
• Won final 35 matches of season
• Won MIAC-record 40 matches
• Had sixth-best winning percentage in Division III history (40-1, .976 winning percentage)
• Only the second team in the 32-year history of D-III nationals to rally from a 2-0 set deficit and win the last three sets of the championship match
• 14-0 run against MIAC opponents, swept conference regular-season and playoff titles
• First team in MIAC history to win or share six consecutive conference championships
• Current home-court win streak of 28 matches
• Thanh Pham, region and MIAC Coach of the Year
• Two first-time All-Americans, sophomore Kelly Foley and junior Paige Brimeyer
• Sophomore Jill Greenfield selected Most Outstanding Player at eight-team national tournament
• Senior libero Kaiti Wachter played in all 149 career matches, finished in D-III’s top 15 in career digs with 2,951
• Senior Kia Johnson, a Goldwater scholar, was 2011 and 2012 Elite 89 winner as top grade-point average among 136 athletes at nationals
• Team ranked in 93 of last 94 AVCA D-III national polls

HOLLAND, Mich. — Down two sets at one point and playing in front of the largest crowd to ever see an NCAA Division III volleyball championship match, the St. Thomas Tommies staged an improbable comeback to defeat Calvin (Mich.) College, 13-25, 17-25, 25-18, 25-16, 15-9, Saturday night to win the program’s national championship.

The Tommies, who won their last 35 matches in a row, became the first team from the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference to win the national championship in volleyball. They finished the year 40-1, while the Knights, champions of the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association, finished at 33-3.

The Tommies, the first MIAC team ever to reach the NCAA title match, closed out an 8-0 postseason run over the last 17 days with its fifth notable comeback victory.

Volleyball is the eighth different sport in which St. Thomas has won a national team title, joining men’s and women’s basketball; men’s and women’s cross country; baseball; softball and men’s indoor track. It’s the fifth NCAA team title by a Tommie team in the last 10 years.

The Tommies’ attack percentage rose with each set, going from .103 in the first set to .245 in the third, .267 in the fourth and .389 in the deciding set.

Greenfield led St. Thomas with 14 kills and 17 digs, while Foley added 14 kills and seven blocks. Sara Atkinson had 12 kills and a hitting percentage of .455, while libero Kaiti Wachter had 19 digs.

Record Crowd

The match was played in front of 3,517 fans, the vast majority of them from Calvin, whose campus is less than 40 miles from Hope College’s DeVos Fieldhouse. The previous attendance record for a national championship match was 3,423 in 1991, when Washington University-St. Louis defeated UC-San Diego for the Division III title in St. Louis, Mo.

“To be down two sets, in that environment, and to be able to pull out the win speaks volumes about our girls and how much they wanted it,” St. Thomas coach Thanh Pham said. “They’re just fighters. They fought through it. I couldn’t be more proud.”

The Knights, who were seeking their second national championship in three years, dominated the first two sets with their powerful hitting and blocking. The Knights hit .458 in the first set and .467 in the second set, led by sophomore middle hitter Emily Crowe, who had nine kills in 10 attempts for a .900 hitting percentage.

But the tide started to turn in the third set. With junior McKenna Reagan coming off the bench to provide a spark, the Tommies jumped out to a 9-4 lead. Calvin whittled the lead down to 16-15 on a kill by Maggie Kamp, but back-to-back kills by Reagan ignited a six-point run that helped St. Thomas clinch the set.

“We call her ‘Captain Positive,’” Pham said of Reagan, who had five of her seven kills in the third set. “No matter what happens, she’s always saying ‘good job,’ ‘we’ll get the next one,’ (or) ‘come on’. She is really ultra-competitive, and I think that helped raise the level of competitiveness of our team and helped calm us down.”

Momentum Turn

The Tommies continued their surge in the fourth set, as Jill Greenfield, the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, and All-American Kelly Foley consistently found holes in the Knights’ defense. Foley’s kill sealed the set and extended the match to a fifth set, the first five-set match to decide the national title since 2007.

St. Thomas blockers’ came up big early in the deciding set, as two blocks by Mackenzie Piechowski and another by Foley helped the Tommies jump in front 9-5. Calvin mounted one final run, pulling to within 11-9 on a kill by national Player of the Year Lizzie Kamp.

But a Greenfield kill, followed by back-to-back kills by Paige Brimeyer, extended the lead to 14-9. Foley and Greenfield then teamed up for a block for the championship-clinching point.

“I thought we were in the right mentality coming out, and I think we served very aggressively. We stayed in system,” Calvin coach Amber Warners said. “We talked throughout the tournament about staying in the present moment. I don’t really have an explanation (for what happened after the second set) … St. Thomas kicked it in, started serving more aggressively and stayed in system more.”

The Tommies’ attack percentage rose with each set, going from .103 in the first set to .245 in the third, .267 in the fourth and .389 in the deciding set.

Greenfield led St. Thomas with 14 kills and 17 digs, while Foley added 14 kills and seven blocks. Sara Atkinson had 12 kills and a hitting percentage of .455, while libero Kaiti Wachter had 19 digs.

Crowe led Calvin with 14 kills and a hitting percentage of .407 for the match, while Lizzie Kamp added 12 kills and 18 digs, and Maggie Kamp had 12 kills. All-American Megan Rietema dished out 45 assists while Rebecca Ratkov had eight blocks.

Greenfield was joined on the All-Tournament Team by Atkinson, Wachter, Lizzie Kamp, Crowe and Christopher Newport’s Abby Hogge.

NCAA Regional Volleyball Tournament

The Tommie volleyball team will host an eight-team NCAA Region Tournament. The Tommies will play 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 8, vs. Cornell College. If the Tommies beat Cornell they will play 7 p.m. Friday, and if they win Friday they will play 7 p.m. Saturday for the regional title. All of these games will take place in Schoenecker Arena in the Anderson Athletic and Recreation Complex.

All NCAA postseason events require a ticket; however, effective yesterday, Tommie Central will have 100 free tickets per game available for undergraduate students. If the Tommies win, 100 tickets for the next day’s game will be available at 10 p.m. following the game.

This is where it gets exciting. At each NCAA postseason home game for volleyball, and in the coming weeks for football, students will be able to have their IDs scanned prior to entering each game for a chance to be entered into a drawing. The more NCAA postseason events a student attends – the more entries the student will have in the drawing.

When attending volleyball this week, students should stop by the St. Thomas Athletic Hall of Fame on the second level of the AARC to have their cards scanned prior to entering the game. Prizes for the drawing will include a flat-screen TV, catered lunch for six and with either volleyball coach Thanh Pham or football coach Glenn Caruso, and the final prize is a $100 Bookstore gift card. Fanamaniac urges everyone to get out and cheer on the Tommies as they make runs for fall national championships and as they begin the winter sports season.

Football vs. St. Olaf

Outside linebacker Tremayne Williams sets his sights on a tackle for the undefeated Tommies, who have “3-peated” as MIAC champions. The team’s final MIAC game is Saturday in O’Shaughnessy Stadium. (Photo by Mike Ekern ’02)

The football team will look to cap off an undefeated regular season as it hosts St. Olaf at 1:10 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 10. Undergraduate students can pick up a free meal voucher good for a free lunch during Purple on the Plaza. Purple on the Plaza is a pre-game event that takes place on John P. Monahan Plaza from 11:30 to 1 p.m. prior to each home football game. The event is full of music, food and Tommie Spirit.

During halftime, stop by the purple tent at the south end of the stadium near the old scoreboard to register your Fanamaniac ID card scan – and cheer on the Tommies as they strive to complete an undefeated regular season.

Other Fanamaniac Events

• Friday, Nov. 9 – Pre-game event on the plaza, 6:15-7 p.m. (scan ID on the plaza; rain site: Scooter’s)
• Friday, Nov. 9 – Men’s hockey,* 7:30 p.m. Bus leaves at 7 p.m. from the Flynn turnaround (scan ID at Flynn as you board the bus)
• Saturday, Nov. 10 – Football, 1:10 p.m. (scan ID at halftime on south end of the Stadium by the old scoreboard; look for the purple tent)
• Friday, Nov. 16 – Pre-game on the plaza, 6:15-7 p.m. (scan ID on the plaza; rain site: Scooter’s)
• Friday, Nov. 16  – Women’s hockey,* 7:30 p.m. Bus leaves at 7 p.m. from Flynn turnaround (scan ID at Flynn as you board the bus)
• Tuesday, Nov. 20 – Pre-game event on the plaza, 6-7 p.m. (scan ID on the plaza; rain site: Scooter’s)
• Tuesday, Nov. 20 – Men’s basketball, 7 p.m. (scan ID at entrance to Schoenecker Arena throughout the game)
• Wednesday, Nov. 28 – Barbecue on the plaza, 6:30-7:30 p.m. (scan ID on the plaza; rain site: Scooter’s)
• Wednesday, Nov. 28 – Women’s basketball, 7:30 p.m. (scan ID at entrance to Schoenecker Arena throughout the game)

* Ride the Fanamaniac shuttle to hockey games and be admitted to the games for free.