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HELENA, Mont. – The Carroll College women's team is coming off a successful weekend with three wins, including two over top-15 opponents but the road doesn't get any easier for the Saints who travel to Oregon for three games in three days in three different cities this weekend.
 
The Saints take on Concordia (Ore.) Friday 6:30 p.m. MDT in Portland, Northwest Christian University Saturday in Eugene, Ore., at 4 p.m. MDT and Pacific University on Sunday at 3 p.m. in Forest Grove, Ore.
 
Carroll will look to repeat last week's sweep of the three teams in the Las Vegas Frontier Shootout but the difficulty ramps up with true road games and the travel involved to meet each team on their home courts.
 
"We truly take it game-by-game. I concentrate on the first game of the week and let my assistants work on the scouting report for the other games on the weekend," head coach Rachelle Sayers said. "We've changed our philosophy a lot about what we do to prepare. We really focus on ourselves and what we are going to do."
 
The Saints followed a similar schedule to a year ago and when they struggled with some of the early games but were selected for the NAIA tournament with just 18 wins because of wins against two top-five teams. This year the Saints are 5-0 early and look to extend their win streak. Carroll also play a pair of tough exhibition games against Montana and Gonzaga.
 
"The biggest difference on why a team like us with 18 wins gets in and others with 20 or more wins didn't get in is our overall strength of schedule," Sayers said. "Like last year we have a tough non-conference schedule. We've already played two teams in the top 15 and one in the top five. Just our conference schedule is tough and when you look at our exhibition games, they don't count but the raters look at how you compete with those D-I teams."
 
The tough early schedule builds a comfort level with what many would call a difficult travel schedule. Three games in three days, two weeks in a row will help the Carroll team prepare for a daunting Frontier slate.
 
"It is hard to deal with but our team doesn't know any different," Sayers said. "Our conference is pretty spread out and we have a lot of back-to-backs, so to do it in the non-conference is not anything unusual. We are going to be well prepared when we hit the conference season because we will have three tough trips with difficult schedules behind us. If we survive November we'll be ready for the rest of the year."
 
The first game at Concordia will test the Saints against a team that likes to spread the ball around. The Cavaliers are 1-1 after two games, falling to Hawaii Pacific 87-68 and topping San Francisco State 64-41. Four Concordia players average double-figures led by Sierra Dean with 12.5 points per game.
 
The Cavaliers are in their first season as an NCAA D-II member of the GNAC. Prior to this season, Concordia was a member of the NAIA Cascade Conference where they tallied a 12-16 record, including 6-12 in conference.
 
"We are going to see a lot of ball screens in this first game," Sayers said. "We need to figure out a way to keep them in front of us so we don't put our post in foul trouble or give up a lot of points."
 
The second game, the Saints will see a team that mirrors themselves. Northwest Christian has size that will test Carroll posts Cassidy Hashley, Baylee Watson and Hannah Dean.
 
NCU is 3-1 on the season with wins over Simpson (Calif.), San Diego Christian, and Linfield. The lone loss came at the hands of William Jessop (Calif.).
 
Andrea Gloss leads the Beacons with 12 points per game and Hanna Mack is second with 10.3 points and leads the team with 7.8 rebounds per game.
 
Sayers has a long-time relationship with NCU head coach Heath Alexander and has a good idea of what the Saints will deal with.
 
"I've known Heath for quite a few years and he is doing some good things over there," Sayers said. "He was able to pick up Hanna Mack, a 6-4 transfer from Eastern Washington, and they are going to try to do a lot of the same things we do and pound the ball inside."
 
Sunday's matchup with Pacific is difficult to gage. The NCAA DIII Boxers are under a new coach in former Portland State Associate Head Coach Jennifer Mountain. Pacific was 9-16 a season ago and 5-11 in Northwest Conference play.
 
The Boxers opened the season with a 66-48 win over New Hope Christian where Sarah Curl scored a game-high 27 points to lead the way.
 
"I've also known Jennifer for a long time and she is in her first year and trying to build a program there," Sayers said. "It is going to be a little different from the other two games but it will be a challenge."
 
Carroll is 5-0 on the year and is led by Cassidy Hashley with 13.8 points per game and 6.2 rebounds. Katie Estey (9.2), Dean (9.2) and Watson (9.0) all average over nine points per game.
 
All three games will have streaming available.