(Vermillion, SD) Harlan’s Taylor Frederick was enjoying a banner year on the women’s basketball team at the University of South Dakota when all things came to a screeching halt.
The nationally ranked Coyotes were having one of the best years in their history. Their only losses were to a national power South Carolina and MVC Tourney champ Missouri State. Frederick and her teammates were looking forward to making some noise in the NCAA Tourney after winning the Summit League championship, but that all ended abruptly when the NCAA cancelled their postseason tourney. “It’s crazy to think about. We had no idea this was going to play out this way. It’s understandable with everything going on right now. You can’t question that. Going out the way we did, we couldn’t have ended the season any better. Even though we didn’t know that the season was going to end in the Summit League championship. Just being able to win that game and being able to do something we haven’t done here together was just incredible. Now looking back at that, it makes that moment even more special.”
Frederick is thankful of all the opportunities she had throughout her college career. “I’m just so thankful. USD has given me so much. It’s crazy to look back and think what we’ve all done and be able to accomplish that. As a freshman I knew that we had a lot of talented girls, but you never know what’s going to happen. To look back now at everything we’ve done it is honestly incredible and I don’t want to change anything about it.”
She was named the 6th Woman of the Year in the Summit League and earned honorable mention all-conference honors. Her season statistics were as follows: 10 points per game, 4.5 rebounds per game, 53.8% field goal shooting, and 70% free-throw shooting. One of her best games of the season came in the Summit League semifinals when she had 16 points on 8/10 shooting along with 6 rebounds and 2 steals in a win over Oral Roberts.
