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HELENA, Mont. – The Carroll College women's basketball team played a brutal non-conference schedule with nine out of 10 games away from home, including four true road games and a pair of games against NAIA top-25 teams.
 
The Saints also played four road exhibition games, including three games against teams that have made the NCAA Tournament field in the last three seasons.
 
The schedule was meant to prep Carroll for the tough Frontier Conference slate. Friday and Saturday, the time has finally come to see if the prep work prepared the fifth-ranked Saints for the grind as the Saints take on No. 2 MSU-Northern and the University of Great Falls.
 
"We are excited about the match ups.  Why not start off with this type of hype and atmosphere," head coach Rachelle Sayers said. "We thrive on that.  We have been preparing all year for this, this is why we had the pre-season schedule we had and this is why we work hard in conditioning, in the weight room and in our preparation.  We knew that our conference was going to be as tough and as competitive as it has ever been and we look forward to that."
 
The first game is the marquee game in the country this week. The Northern women haven't dealt with the same caliber of schedule that the Saints have but played six of their 11 non-conference games in Havre and have yet to play an NAIA DI ranked opponent. They opened the Frontier season against Rocky in Billings and fell to the Bears 76-58 in their lone setback but topped Montana Western two days later 52-48 and topped UGF 73-53 Thursday in Havre.
 
The Skylights play a smothering brand of defense, leading the Frontier in defensive scoring, allowing just 49.75 points per game.
 
MSUN is without double-double machine Ajha Edwards, who graduated after last season. Sophomore guard Jacy Thompson has stepped up to lead the Skylights at 15.92 PPG and junior Natalee Faupel is second on the team with 14.08, including 27 against UGF.
 
The Skylights reached the elite eight last season and with a No. 2 ranking are situated for a good seed if they can sustain their current pace.

"Northern is going to grind it out on both ends," Sayers said. "You will have to play defense through the entire shot clock and on the other end you are going to have to work really hard to get a good look."

The UGF women also made an elite eight run a season ago but are 10-5 this season and 1-2 in Frontier Conference play.

The Argos played in the Frontier Conference Las Vegas Shootout against the same teams as Carroll and fell to both Westmont and The Master's.

UGF topped Montana Western in their Frontier opener but lost to Rocky Mountain and to MSUN Thursday evening.

Five Argos average double figures, led by junior forward Nneka Nnadi with 17.43 points per game and all-time UGF scoring leader Erin Legel with 15.86 points per game.

"UGF is more of a 'sock it to you' offense," Sayers said. "They want to score fast and they want to score often.  You have to be on high alert the minute they get the ball.  They want to push tempo and if they can do that, you will have a hard time beating them at their game."

The Saints play their second of five back to back games this season, the most of any Frontier Conference team in the three-game round robin schedule.

"Playing back to back is all in what you make of it.  We have been doing it all preseason," Sayers said. "We played three games in a row in Vegas, we played three in a row and traveled to three different venues in Oregon and back to back in Phoenix.  We have prepared for this.  At the end of the day, it comes down to two things, who executes their game plan the best and who makes shots.  Northern and UGF are very different within their systems but both are very good at what they do. This is conference, it's a dog fight every night.  We know that we have our hands full with both teams and we will have to play very well to come out of there with two wins, but we have had a very good week of practice and our players are excited to get back on the court."

The Saints and Skylights tip off at 6 p.m. at the Armory Friday. Carroll and UGF play at 5:30 p.m. Saturday in Great Falls.