HELENA, Mont. – The Carroll College women's basketball team has proved that they can go into a hostile environment on the road and pick up a win. Two weeks ago, they toppled the reigning Mountain West Conference champions Boise State 62-61 on their home court in an exhibition game. The Saints will need to do it again in the coming days. 

Saturday and Monday, Carroll travels to California to face a pair of ranked opponents in true road games. Carroll opens the weekend against No. 7 Westmont in Santa Barbara at 8 p.m. MST Saturday, before traveling to meet No. 18 The Master's in Santa Clarita at 5 p.m. MST Monday.

The Saints are currently 3-0 on the season with a road win over College of Idaho and home wins against St. Thomas (Fla.) and Northwest (Wash.) Carroll is currently the top team in the NAIA in rebound defense and second in scoring defense. Hannah Dean leads the Saints in Points (10.33), rebounds (7.67) and assists (3.33).

The road trip marks the first of eight-straight games away from the PE Center for the Saints. 

"This is a huge trip for us," head coach Rachelle Sayers said. "Playing two top-25 teams on their home court will be quite a challenge."

Their first meeting comes against Westmont. The Warrior mirror the Saints in a lot of ways. They have a pair of talented post players in Morgan Haskin and Lauren McCoy. Haskin is averaging 17.3 points and 7.0 rebounds per game. 
    
"I am excited to see how we match up with Westmont on Saturday," Sayers said. "They are very well coached and have two true post players that are big-time rebounders and work well together. Their guard line is young, but they are very athletic and can score. Westmont is very disciplined and will run a ton of sets at us. We have to be ready to defend for 30 seconds of the shot clock."  

Westmont is 3-1 on the year with the lone loss coming against NCAA DII opponent Azusa Pacific.

Monday, the Saints take on the 18th-ranked Mustangs. TMC is 2-1 on the year with a road loss to Lewis-Clark State in the opener. The Mustangs have two games this weekend as part of their Jersey Mike's Fall Classic. 

Guard Hannah Forrar is shooting lights out. She went 6-6 from the three-point line in the opener and is 8-12 on the season. She is averaging 21.6 points per game, two other Master's players are averaging double figures. 

"The Masters is a completely different team than Westmont," Sayers said. "They want to get up and down the floor, they push the ball and create a lot of open shots for each other. If they get going from the 3-point line, it will be a long night for us. We have had a great week of practice, everyone is healthy, so I anticipate two great battles down in Cali."

Westmont will have live stats and video will be available here and The Master's will have live stats and video here. 
 
Chalich Out for Season
Sayers also announced that junior guard Sara Chalich will miss the 2017-18 season with an injury but is expected to return for her senior season. She joins senior center Cassidy Hashley as players with medical redshirts this season. Both have one year of eligibility remaining.

"We are deeply saddened to lose Sara," Sayers said. "She worked really hard this summer and she came on at the end of last year. Not only will we miss her scoring ability, but we will also miss her defensively intensity and her leadership. She and Cassie will still be a huge part of what we do this year and we are counting on them to continue to help our team get better every day."