Penn State women’s basketball coach Coquese Washington, who led the Lady Lions to the 2012 Big Ten Championship, has signed a contract extension to keep her as the head of the Lady Lion Basketball program through the 2017 campaign.

Washington’s new deal runs from July 1, 2012 through June 30, 2017. The five-year contract has a total compensation package worth nearly $3.5 million dollars.

Washington has guided a Lady Lion program that was in the rebuilding process and led them back to national prominence in her five years since taking over the helm, culminating in winning the 2012 Big Ten Championship and an NCAA Sweet Sixteen berth. In each of her five seasons at the helm, Penn State has increased its Big Ten win total, including a 13-3 record in 2011-12 for the program’s first Big Ten Championship since 2003-04. The Lady Lions also spent all but one week of the season ranked in the two national polls, finishing ninth in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches’ Poll and 11th in the Associated Press Top 25.