Sarah Lisko keeps finding ways to get better.
 
Just three weeks into this season, she has already started more games than she did a year ago, equaled her career-high for wins, and holds the third-lowest ERA in the Summit. She's achieved all this while navigating the academic rigors of a third-year nursing student where clinical hours, softball practices and weekend plane rides don't always align.
 
So how has she done it?
 
It started with a summer stay in Vermillion. It can be pricey for students to stay on campus between their freshman and sophomore years, but off-campus housing typically becomes the norm between years two and three. Lisko found a house. That allowed her to spend the summer working out with teammates, and with USD assistant strength and conditioning coach Caleb Heim.
 
"Caleb always sends us a summer workout, and that's awesome that you can do it at home, but it is so much more beneficial to be here with your teammates," said Lisko. "So I stayed this summer and worked out with Caleb and I got a lot stronger and I think that's helped me throw harder."
 
Train with teammates, get stronger. Check. What else?
 
How about a new pitch?
 
Lisko has always relied on her accuracy and a curve ball that runs in tight on righties. She used to throw a rise ball, but not anymore. She also had a drop ball, but in her words, it was bad and didn't move.
 
Coyote pitching coach Nicole Steinbach was a two-time all-region pitcher at Ball State University. She threw a drop ball that was not bad and did move. She's also a fantastic teacher.
 
"I'm a really visual learner," said Lisko. "So Stein came up with things that play to that, whether it was phrases to say or she'd set up strings or buckets and stuff for me to be able to visualize my release point and where it should be breaking and all that stuff. And I think bringing all that stuff in is really helpful for me.
 
"You can tell me to get my weight on my front side 1,000 times, but I'm not going to do it until you yank on my shirt when I pitch. That's the kind of learner I am."
 
It's worked so well that Lisko claims it's already her best pitch. She even labels herself a drop-ball pitcher.
 
What about the nursing program? The hardest part about this sixth semester is that there are many clinicals and all of them take place on Thursdays and Fridays. Today is the fourth of six straight Fridays with competition for the Coyotes. Fortunately, there is flexibility.
 
"Professor (Pam) Banks and advisor Regan (Luken) are amazing," said Lisko. "They sat down with me and Camille (Fowler) at the beginning of the semester and learned all of the days we were going to be gone. Then they called all of these facilities and talked to clinical instructors and got us in with different groups and rescheduled everything we were going to miss to match when we were here, which has made it 1,000 times easier. I wouldn't have been able to do it without them, and (coach) Wagner is flexible as well."
 
How Wagner found Lisko is another good story. Lisko grew up in Rochester, Minnesota, which rests about 4 ½ hours northeast of Vermillion. She attended a camp at USD when she was 14, back when Amy Klyse was the coach. It was one of a number of camps Lisko attended and she never really thought much about it afterwards.
 
Her Minnesota Force club team took her to a tournament in California. That's where she caught the eye of Wagner and the Coyotes.
 
"I was emailing 1,000 schools, but the one school I didn't think of that has a great nursing program and is the perfect level to be at was USD. It's funny I had to fly to California for South Dakota to find me."
 
Now she has flown to New Mexico for the first time. South Dakota is ready for five games at the New Mexico Lobo Classic starting Friday in Albuquerque. It's the latest challenge for Lisko and her teammates.
 
"We're young and .500 isn't an amazing start, but I do think that all of the games that we lost, we could have won," said Lisko. "We don't make excuses. Our seniors are great leaders and our freshmen are performing really well. I love our energy and our pitching staff bond is 10 times what it has been since I've been here. We're ready to go."