South Dakota women’s basketball ranked for first time in school history

NEW YORK — South Dakota has been on the rise since moving up to Division I in 2008.

Now the Coyotes can add an appearance in the Associated Press women’s basketball poll to their achievements.

Riding a nine-game winning streak, coach Dawn Plitzuweit’s team entered the AP Top 25 at No. 25 on Monday for the first time in school history.

“Certainly it’s an exciting day for our team and program, our fans and our university,” Plizuweit said. “It speaks volumes to the hard work our young ladies have done to get to this point. It’s certainly not the end goal of our program.”

The Coyotes (22-3), who are off to their best start as a DI school, have five consecutive 20-win seasons. The team is 74-19 in Plizuweit’s three years at the school. She took over a team that won the WNIT title in 2016.

“When you receive a ranking like this it speaks volumes to the young ladies and coaches that have been there before and what they did to build the program,” she said

The Coyotes’ first game as a ranked team will be on Saturday at Western Illinois. The team was off practice Monday.

“Today we can celebrate it without focusing on being on the court then get back to work,” Plizuweit said. “This group is really hungry and on a mission right now to be the best they can be.”

South Dakota already has win this season over Iowa State and Missouri when the Tigers were ranked.