Lone senior is leading by example on and off court

The Coyote women’s basketball team will graduate only one senior when the clock strikes zero on the 2013-14 campaign: Polly Harrington.

Harrington was a major part of the Coyotes’ run to the Summit League Championship game 2013 where the Coyotes lost to South Dakota State, losing a bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Harrington is a unique Coyote senior, not playing all four years at the University of South Dakota. She started her career at then-Big East powerhouse Louisville, before transferring to Johnson County Community College and then landing at USD.

Harrington started in all 35 games as a Coyote last year, averaging 11.1 points and 5.8 rebounds per game. So far this year, she hasn’t missed a beat, averaging 10.3 points and 5.4 rebounds per game.

However, she said her goals are all on focused on the Big Dance in March.

“Of course everybody wants to go dancing,” Harrington said. “That’s our major goal right now is to play our best basketball when March comes around, so we can be playing at our best and win that Summit League Tournament and make it to the NCAA Tournament.”

As the only senior on the team, head coach Amy Williams said at media day that she liked the way Harrington was improving throughout the off-season and molding as a leader, especially for the younger players.

This is a young team, and early on in the year, it showed with the Coyotes opening their 2013-14 campaign with a 1-4 record. Since then, however, the Coyotes have won five of their last six and have improved their record to 6-5.

Harrington said she attributes the improvements to the team coming into its own and the youth starting to gain experience.

“From the beginning of this year until right now, we’ve improved a lot on defense; that was one of our main problems in the beginning,” Harrington said. “Running our system has gotten better for us. People have gotten better at playing at the collegiate level, because we’re so young.”

For this Coyote, the only way she will be able to go dancing is by winning the Summit League, which will have to come through conference power-house South Dakota State.

The main thing Harrington says the Coyotes need to improve on before making their potential post-season run is rebounding.

“We’ve just been working harder,” Harrington said. “Those games we lost, we were getting out-rebounded and not attacking the basket like we should been. We’ve been starting to get rebounds these last few games, and it’s been making the difference.”

At media day, Williams also mentioned that at times last year she didn’t like Harrington’s attitude, but this year she’s turned it around improving her as a leader.

So far in her second year as a Coyote, Harrington is third on the team in both points per game and rebounds per game, but her goal isn’t finishing her senior campaign at the top of the scoring list. Harrington said that her goal is to walk out of the University of South Dakota with a Summit League Championship.

“I just want to win the Summit League Tournament and make it to the NCAA Tournament because it will be the first time we’ve been there as a program,” Harrington said. “It’ll be a big step for our program and a great way to end my career.”