HELENA, Mont. – The reigning Cascade Conference Champion Carroll College women's soccer team took to the field this week and look to defend their title and make a return trip to NAIA tournament.

Carroll returns seven returning starters, including two-time player of the year, goalkeeper Jamie Carter and four of the five back-line players. The Saints stifling defense was a huge part of their success in 2015.

Carroll finished the season with a 12 team shutouts and allowed less than a goal per game on their way to a 14-6-2 record, including a 9-1-1 mark.

Carter was in the top 20 in the country for goal against average and a lot of that had to do with her stellar backfield. She loses all-conference player Caitlin Walter but the remainder of the back-line remains intact.

"Our main focus in preseason, is how do we get better through the midfield through the forwards," head coach David Thorvilson said. "That is a product of our comfort level with our defense. They are going to keep us in a lot of games but if we could score a few more goals it would make things easier all around."

While the Saints were near the top of the league in goals allowed, they were just fifth in goals scored a season ago. Carroll lost leading point scorer Lexi Pyette to graduation but return second-leading point scorer Michaela Kueffler and third-leading point scorer Cassidy Hammons.

"We have a good core group of returners that can play up top and we brought in a couple of freshmen to bring depth up front,"Thorvilson said. "I am hoping that we have multiple players scoring goals from all over the field. It makes it much harder defend us."

Carter had the opportunity to witness the new-look Carroll attack in the camp-opening scrimmage and she believes the Saints can take it up a notch.

"Just in the first scrimmage of fall camp I saw a lot of good things from our forwards and attacking mids," Carter said. "The juniors are stepping up and the freshmen look really good in their positions. I feel we are going to be in a good spot with our attack."

Despite winning the conference championship, the team members are not resting on their laurels. The brutal fitness tests that accompany the first day of fall training were passed with flying colors. The tests showed off the work that the Saints put in during the offseason.

"We had five fitness tests and our team is in very good shape, including the freshmen," Thorvilson said. "In the first few practices we looked good and we need to find our legs after some pretty tough fitness testing but I feel great about where we are."

Carter echoed Thorvilson's thoughts on the camp-opening tests and is excited to continue to build into the season opener on Aug. 25.
 
 "Honestly, we all came in extremely fit," Carter said. "The freshmen look like they will be great additions to the team and the returners were here most of the summer training. We are ready to get to work."

The Saints do meet an opponent not wearing purple and gold Sunday in the lone exhibition match of the season against the University of Alberta. The Pandas open their Saturday against the University of Montana before traveling to Helena.

Alberta finished last season 8-5-1 and scored 22 goals as a team while allowing 19 and lost out of the Canada West Playoffs to eventual CIS National Runner-Up Trinity Western 1-0.

The Saints played a pair of Canadian teams a season ago and split the weekend, topping Mount Royal 1-0 and falling to Calgary 1-0.

The game is slated for 1 p.m. at Nelson Stadium and admission is free. The Carroll men take on Sheridan College immediately after to complete the exhibition double-header.