HELENA, Mont. – The Carroll College women's basketball team opens the season with a load of experience, despite having just one senior on the roster. Three starters return for the Saints on the No. 5 scoring defensive team in the country and Carroll looks to make their fourth trip to the NAIA Tournament in five seasons.
 
The biggest strength this season, like last year, is size. Senior forward Baylee Watson and junior honorable All-American Center Cassidy Hashley return for Carroll but Watson will step into a guard role and head coach Rachelle Sayers will start Hannah Dean on the inside.
 
Brittney Johnson will return to the starting lineup for the second-consecutive season but the Saints must replace third-team All-American points guard Katie Estey.
  
"That's the big question mark and I'm sure that's what people are looking at, is who is going to fill that void that Katie Estey left," Sayers said. "We have three players that are very capable in Bailey Pasta, Julie Caputo and Mika Robinson. We have three players that have worked extremely hard in this off season. They've improved their games, and have been quietly getting better day in and day out. They're ready to take on the responsibility and accept the leadership of this team and I think people are going to be surprised at the point guards that we do have and I think they are going to be ready."
 
The rest of the back court will look to make a bigger impact after struggling from the 3-point line last season. Sayers is confident that the guards will be much improved.
 
"They understand as good as our posts are that are teams going to go as they go, but they have to be respectable and their shooting and they can all do that," Sayers said. "They all have that ability, they've all put in the work and now it's time to toughen up and do their job, they understand that they need to do that, and they're all capable of it. I'm excited to see which guards step up, and I think it's going to be different ones, and they are all fully capable. So I think we'll have different outcomes than last year."
 
The move to the guard position for Watson will create mismatches for opponents but will also give the Saints an opportunity to take advantage of Dean and Michaela Dowdy who saw significant time last season. Also joining the mix in the forward position will be redshirt freshman Oona Harrington.
 
"We felt like Baylee Watson has a lot of strengths and trying to figure out how to utilize those as well as free up someone on post because obviously Cassie, Hannah, Michaela Dowdy, we have three players that would probably be the starters on any team in our conferences team." Sayers said. "We really need to make sure we get the most out of those three players and I felt like last year that Hannah and Michaela did need more minutes, but that meant that you have two all-conference caliber players sitting, to do that. So moving Baylee just made sense and gave us a different look."
 
Carroll brings in a pair of freshman. Havre product Dani Wagner will redshirt this season but Glacier High alum Taylor Salonen, a 6-foot-1 forward, will be in the lineup for the Saints.
 
 
"Taylor has been one of those kids who amaze us every day, you look at her stats from high school and it's not as impressive as you would think it would be," Sayers said. "If you watch her perform now, her rebounding, reading defenses and her ability to pass is way ahead of where I thought she would be. She just does some things that you wouldn't expect the younger players to do, so we're really excited about her, and what she can bring to us."
 
The Saints will again play in one of the toughest conferences in NAIA Division I. Four teams made the trek to the NAIA Championship a season ago and all four begin the season in the top-25.  Lewis-Clark State returns a significant part of their conference championship lineup, MSU-Northern has their entire starting lineup back, including Frontier Conference MVP Natalee Faupel. The University of Great Falls is without leading scorer Erin Legel but return sharpshooter Darah Huertas-Vining after she missed a year with injuries.
 
"The conference was as good as it was last year, not only was it a good conference, it was a young conference," Sayers said. "Northern returns a Frontier Conference Player of the Year, and their entire staring line up. obviously Great Falls loses Erin Legel but gains Huertas-Vining back, Rocky will be a little bit of a mystery for us with the amount of transfers and new players they have, but there's no doubt they'll still have a great group in there. Montana Western added a new line up and some returning players. Montana Tech was really young last year so I think they will be much improved. It's going to be a dog fight day in and day out."
 
An exciting opportunity awaits the Frontier Conference teams this season with NAIA Championship scheduled to take place at the Rimrock Arena in Billings. Rocky Mountain will earn an automatic bid to the tournament as the host.
 
"It's big if you're there, I think it's horrible if you're not," Sayers said. "If we get there, obviously we have our fans, families for support, it huge, some of our kids haven't been there in their first two years and their families haven't gotten to go yet.  It's a great opportunity for them and their families but if you're that Montana team sitting at home it's awful, so there's a lot of pressure to have the chance to bring this thing home and be proud, if we finish in the middle of the pack who knows what's going to happen I think it's a little more added pressure. I think it's awesome for our league, it means a lot to this state because basketball is big here and being able to showcase NAIA basketball is awesome."
 
The Saints open the season Friday at the PE Center against the University of Lethbridge. The Pronghorns are 3-5 on the season already with losses to MSU-Northern and UGF.
 
The game is scheduled for 6 p.m. at the PE Center. Live stats will be available via Dakstats and live video will be available via the Carroll youtube channel.