Dec. 20, 2010

By Samantha Franz
Athletic Communications contributor

As a dual sport athlete in high school, Karen (Ill) Piper could have easily have gone to any number of local schools on a basketball scholarship and probably would have been just as successful as her time as a Pioneer. But Piper wanted to focus on her true love: volleyball. As a result, only one school offered her a scholarship and that was Oakland University.

The gamble certainly paid off, as Piper became OU's first-ever volleyball All-American, where she was a three-time All-GLIAC and two-time All-Region honoree, as well as setting school Division II records in single match (30 vs. Northwood 1995) and season kills per game (4.77 in 1995) records, in addition to career hitting percentage (.314) and career kills per game (3.48) records. Later on, she was immortalized in Oakland's Hall of Honor in 2002.

It wasn't an easy road to All-American status, however. In Piper's four years, the Pioneers had four head coaches, including a period of coachlessness her sophomore year. But it was also in that season that Piper and her teammates rose to the challenge.

"We really pushed each other; we knew we were good athletes and we were driven," she said. "We started out that season 14-0 and ended up at in the regional finals that year."

But to Piper, what mattered more than all of the accolades, recognition and match victories were the relationships she was able to build with her teammates and fellow students and she feels Oakland was the perfect place for that.

"You know, I had people tell me that if I wanted a social experience in college to not attend Oakland because there were so many commuters," said Piper. "I was kind of deterred by that, but I think because of that, you learned how to make your own college experience. Because of that, I had a great time at Oakland."

Whether it was the perils of being defaulted to the back of the travel van on road trips as a freshman, bonding with her suitemates over three-cheese pizzas or experience her first-ever plane ride, Piper looks back fondly at her memories with her teammates.

"Those relationships are what are most important - each and every game isn't going to matter for the rest of your life," she said. "My experiences with my teammates stick out more in my mind than the games themselves."

She recalls one teammate in particular, Sharla Yaklin, with whom she is still close friends with to this day.

"We would work out together and I'll tell you, I have never liked or never will like running," she said. "But, we would run on the treadmills together and every time I would want to quit, she would force me to keep going by chanting, `All-American!' and encouraging me. I was probably in the best shape of my life then because of her."

After her time as a Pioneer and graduating with her degree in nursing in 1997, Piper was able to continue playing on a travel team with other All-Americans from across the Midwest. But after developing a heart arrhythmia, as well as having back surgery and a knee replacement, Piper had to stop playing competitively for good.

"I miss it, but it's not my life anymore and that's hard to say because when I was first finished playing at OU, I was probably depressed for a good month because volleyball was who I was and what I did and the travel team helped fill that void," she said. "But I have a great family (her husband Jeffery and her two children) and that matters more than anything."

But this All-American is still on the move. After earning her bachelor's and working for three years as a registered nurse in labor and delivery, Piper returned to Oakland for her master's in nursing anesthesia, which she obtained in 2003. Today, she is a certified registered nurse and has been doing anesthesia for seven and a half years for Beaumont Hospital, first in Royal Oakland and now in Troy.

Through her success as both a student-athlete and in life after OU, Piper still credits Oakland for helping her lay down the foundation for the future.

"It was the stepping stone to bigger and better things for me," she said. "When I first started there, I had no idea what I wanted to go into. I went there because of the scholarship and I was enrolled in some nursing classes that had a curriculum of science and anatomy classes that I really liked. Things happen for a reason, you know. Things fell into place for me. Oakland has been a great background for me."

-OAKLAND-