Senior goalkeeper, Alli Harrington, has found herself thrust into an extremely important position during the most important part of the Ichabods’ season.
This opportunity came in mid-October when starting goalkeeper, sophomore Hailey Beck, sustained a season-ending injury, and Harrington became the only available goalkeeper for the rest of the season.
Harrington said she has “big shoes to fill” replacing Beck. Beck earned MIAA second-team honors for her 2024 season and was also the focal point of Washburn’s school record-setting streak of 1,128 consecutive minutes without conceding a goal, where she accounted for 1,000 of the shutout minutes.
Harrington, who contributed 120 minutes to the shutout streak, saw it come to an end in her second start when Fort Hays State University scored in the 20th minute of a late-October road game. The Tigers would go on to win the match, 2-1. The two goals from Fort Hays are the only goals conceded by Harrington in her Washburn career.
Harrington ended the regular season with three shutouts which earned her MIAA goalkeeper of the week honors and helped Washburn to a second consecutive MIAA regular season championship and the No. 1 seed in the MIAA Tournament. This means the Ichabods will host the No. 8 seed in the MIAA – the Fort Hays State Tigers.
Harrington was clear on her thoughts about the playoff matchup with Hays.
“I was hoping to get Fort Hays again,” Harrington said. “The first time around, we kind of underestimated them a little and we definitely learned our lesson. We won’t be doing that again.”
Following the Hays defeat, Harrington worked with goalkeeper coach, Walker Farrar, on stopping high long-range shots. A main focus of this training has been cutting long shots off from the source by verbally guiding her defenders to block the angles of attack that Hays scored from in the last matchup.
Farrar said earlier this season that he knew Harrington was capable of handling starting duties if she were to be called upon, describing her as the team’s best goalkeeper in one-on-one situations.
Farrar’s confidence in Harrington did not waver after the Hays defeat.
“[Fort Hays] scored two great goals that you’d be lucky to get across a full season let alone in one game,” Farrar said.
He described Harrington as “super talented,” and said he doesn’t believe much has to change for her to achieve a better result in the playoff matchup against Hays.
Washburn’s MIAA Championship Tournament first-round match kicks off at 1 p.m. Nov. 10 in Yager Stadium.
Edited by Morgan Albrecht
