HELENA, Mont. -- A trip up north awaits the Carroll College women's volleyball team this weekend, as the Fighting Saints take on Montana State-Northern on Friday and Providence on Saturday. 

The Saints will pack their bags for the journey to the hi-line, and they'll pack a six-match winning streak with them -- including their most recent masterpiece, a sweep of No. 16 Rocky Mountain College in the PE Center last week. That game led to two Saints -- Ayla Carpenter and Ali Williams -- being recognized as the NAIA National Players of the Week, while the two and Lexi Mikkelsen also were recognized as the Frontier Conference Players of the Week.

"I think coming off a win like we had against Rocky and even going back as far as what we did in Michigan, we've been building some momentum and I'd like to find a way to get that going," Saints coach Moe Boyle said. "It really starts with the upperclassmen leading the group." 

Boyle has preached the importance of peaking at the right time, November, to ensure the Saints are playing at their best during the postseason. If the majority of October's results are any indicator, the Saints are right on schedule. 

"I think our focus the last few weeks has been solely on us and what we need to do to take care of business on our side of the net," Boyle said. "And that's gotta continue. It shouldn't matter who's on the other side and how they play. What really matters is how we play and how we adjust to what the other side does. And to stay within what we're capable of doing and not try to do more than that."

The Saints are led by Mikkelsen's 229 kills (2.9 per game), Williams' 720 assists (8.6 per game), Carpenter's 452 digs (5.4 per game) and Hannah Dean's 110 blocks (1.4 per game).

Dean's blocks rank her No. 4 in the NAIA, while the Saints as a team rank No. 2 in the NAIA for blocks per game. Carpenter is ranked No. 31 in the NAIA in digs per game. 

Carroll's sweep of Rocky was a culmination of efforts that Boyle has observed for weeks now. She likened the game-day execution to students performing well on test day. 

"It's really just a matter of putting it together when you need to," Boyle said. "On game day, it's like test day -- whether you can rise to the challenge or not. I see a rise in confidence both individually and together and that's from everybody on the court and everybody on the bench who all believe that we're capable of beating anybody on the other side of the net."

The Saints have four regular-season tests left. If they keep acing them, they may become the top of the class in the Frontier Conference. 

Watch the livestream at Northern: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCx2uZG1gECZZlZYs4Q67EqA
Watch the livestream at Providence: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCERBVRktYtkfbDskcdmuZ8A