Nov. 1—VERMILLION — There will be new faces both on the court and on the sidelines for the University of South Dakota women’s basketball program this season.
Only two of the team’s five starters are back for the Coyotes, who finished 23-13 last season, reaching the third round of the WNIT before bowing out at Wyoming. The standard for the Coyotes is high, with five NCAA women’s tournament appearances to their name, meaning new head coach Carrie Eighmey is working toward raising the bar for USD once again. The Coyotes open the season at 5:30 p.m. on Nov. 4 at the Sanford Coyote Sports Center against Saint Louis.
“I will never experience more pressure than what I put on myself. I embrace that,” Eighmey said. “If there is some level of pressure, then you’re at a place where people really care. There’s a tradeoff there but I want to be at a place where people really care and that there’s expectations and there’s a history of success and there’s a desire to want to carry on that success.”
Eighmey was hired on April 30, one week after Kayla Karius’ departure for Green Bay was announced. Karius moved on to her alma mater after a two-year stint in which the Coyotes were a combined 37-29.
Eighmey comes from Idaho, where she coached the Vandals for one season, tallying a 15-16 record. Prior to that, she won two-thirds of her games in 12 years as the head coach at Division II University of Nebraska-Kearney.
On the court, guard Grace Larkins is the headliner for the Coyotes, now in her senior season. She averaged 16.5 points and 7.4 rebounds per game and is coming off career-best seasons from the field (47.1%), from 3-point range (34.9%), and from the free-throw line (85.8%).
“It’s always exciting to hear her philosophy and learning from her,” Larkins said of the coaching transition. “We have so much respect for her and it’s been really, really good.”
Of the Coyotes’ top eight scorers from last season, only three return for 2024-25 with Larkins, Carley Duffney and Alexi Hempe, with Duffney as the second-leading returning scorer at 7.7 points per game. Hempe, a sixth-year forward, has played in 94 games for the Coyotes, who were picked to finish fourth in the preseason Summit poll. USD will likely ask for bigger roles from guards Olivia Kieffer and Addison Klosterbuer, as Klosterbuer redshirted last season with a season-ending injury.
With a lot of change, Eighmey described her roster as an “interesting mix” of talent, and she will be leaning on the Coyotes’ veteran players to set the tone and expectations for the season.
“What’s really important for us will be our upperclassmen who have played and experienced Summit League play and have played in the postseason who really understand what it takes and how consistent you have to be over not just days but weeks and months to be able to put yourself in the position to get to a postseason tournament,” she said.
Among the additions for the Coyotes in the transfer portal included Ruthie Loomis-Goltl, a 6-foot-3 center from Bridgeport, Nebraska who transferred from the University of Colorado after a redshirt year. She was an ESPNW top-100 recruit in the class of 2023. Also joining USD is Adara Groman, a 5-foot-8 guard graduate transfer from the University of New Hampshire. The rest of the USD recruiting class included Hannah Coons (Kiefer, Oklahoma), Gabby Wilke (Beaver Dam, Wisconsin), Ava Cossette (Maple Grove, Minnesota) and Viki Matulevicius (Willowbrook, Illinois).
Hempe said the finish to last season and the taste of some success in the WNIT has added motivation for the Coyotes to make this season successful. Eighmey said there’s a simple objective to improve the program every day to start the season and success will follow.
“We don’t talk about pressure. We don’t really talk about winning,” Eighmey said. “We talk about what we need to do today to be better than we were yesterday and what we need to do to have this team be the best version of itself. If we do that, we’re probably going to exceed expectations.”
Among the other schedule highlights includes a Nov. 16 game against Nebraska at the Sanford Pentagon and former USD head coach Amy Williams, who led the Huskers to the NCAA tournament last season. USD will go to Nashville, Tennessee before Thanksgiving for a pair of games against Dayton and Arizona State.
“We’re so driven and working every day,” Larkins said. “We’re just working and ready to get out there and compete.”
