The Game
South Dakota women's basketball hosts Oklahoma in the season opener at 7 p.m. Tuesday inside the Sanford Coyote Sports Center in Vermillion, S.D. The game will be televised by Midco Sports 2 with commentary from Jay Elsen and David Brown. That broadcast will also be available for streaming on espn+ and Midco Sports Plus. A free web stream will also be available right here on GoYotes.com. Fans can also listen to the game on the Coyote Sports Network with Carter Woodiel, carried on KVHT 106.3 FM in Yankton/Vermillion. The radio broadcast will also be available on The Varsity Network app.
Fans are asked to stripe out the Sanford Coyote Sports Center in red and white depending on their section number. Check out the chart below:
The Coyotes
South Dakota tips off its 51st season of women's basketball and sixth under the tutelage of head coach
Dawn Plitzuweit. The Coyotes are coming off their fourth NCAA Tournament appearance in nine years of eligibility and are receiving votes in both the preseason AP Top 25 and USA Today Coaches polls. South Dakota returns 98 percent of its scoring from a year ago with all five starters back including its trio of super seniors in
Hannah Sjerven,
Chloe Lamb and
Liv Korngable who were all named to the Summit League preseason teams. Sjerven is the two-time Summit Defensive Player of the Year, leading the league in rebounding and blocks last season. Lamb was the 2021 Summit Tournament MVP after leading the Coyotes to back-to-back Summit Championships. Both Sjerven and Lamb were named to the Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year preseason watch list.
The Sooners
Oklahoma, a program that's been to three Final Fours and 21 NCAA Tournaments, tips off a new era this season with Jennie Baranczyk as head coach. A familiar face for Coyote fans, she spent the past decade building Drake into one of the top mid-majors in women's basketball. Although there was a coaching change in the off-season, much of the Sooner roster remains the same from last year's meeting. The Sooners' own big three of Madi Williams, Taylor Robertson and Gabby Gregory all return this season. Williams was named to the preseason watch list for the Cheryl Miller Award and was a unanimous preseason all-Big 12 selection after averaging 20.0 points per game as a junior. Robertson, the NCAA's active leader in 3-pointers per game with 3.83, was named to the preseason watch list for the Ann Meyers-Drysdale Award. The Sooners are receiving votes in the preseason AP Top 25 and USA Today Coaches polls.
The Series
This marks just the second time the programs have met with the first coming last December in Norman. Oklahoma took round one 80-73 behind 27 points from Taylor Robertson. Much of the game was decided at the free-throw line with 48 combined trips to the stripe.
One Last Thing
South Dakota enters Tuesday with the nation's fourth-longest home winning streak at 20 games. The Coyotes are 65-4 all-time inside the Sanford Coyote Sports Center.
The Program
