(ABC 6 News) — New era, same team.

John Dzubay, the only volleyball coach in Minnesota history to have over 1,000 career wins, retired earlier this summer from Stewartville.

His successor, Sammy Pedersen has ensured in his first year, that the program is as fierce as ever.

“Not necessarily my way is the only way,” Pedersen explained. “How can we work together to help each other be the best players that we each can be? Which will then obviously make us the best team that we can be.”

Pedersen’s squad entered the section playoffs 23-4, capped off by winning the Toni Kaiser Tournament in Chaska on October 19. The Tigers got wins against three ranked teams, including Class A’s number one, Mayer Lutheran.

“It was pretty awesome for us,” junior Matilda Dube noted. “It was a really fantastic win, it was just really huge for us and really gave us motivation.”

“We had rough practices last week and going into this tournament, we didn’t think we had very high hopes of winning all these games,” fellow junior Ella Theobald added. “But we went in and gave our full effort which is something you can always control.”

The Tigers wouldn’t be at this point without defense. Katherine Klavetter heads a crew with the second-most digs in Class 3A ahead of the playoffs. Offensively, Dube, Theobald and Dream Petersohn had a combined 463 kills in the regular season.

“Even if we don’t get the dig, still touching the ball is something that matters,” Pedersen said. “So, I think our girls have really bought into that ‘Touch every ball.’ ‘Nothing hits the floor without a touch,’ mentality.

A scrappy defense and a trio of heat-seaking hitters makes for quite the winning formula. The Tigers have plans for a return to state and to show that Stewartville’s legacy is alive and kicking.

“We weren’t playing the best we’ve ever been and now we’re starting to play volleyball,” Theobald concluded. “And it just really helps that we’ve all been on this team since last year, everyone’s basically returned. And it just helps that we all have a good community and we all just love each other.”