Women's Basketball | 10/17/23 | 4:55 PM

HELENA, Mont. – The Frontier Conference has announced its Women's Basketball preseason honors. Carroll's Jamie Pickens has been named Preseason Frontier Conference Player of the Year, Kyndall Keller has been named to the Preseason All-Conference team, and the Carroll Women have been picked unanimously to win the Frontier Conference title.
 
Jamie Pickens (Helena, Mont. / GR), last season's Frontier Conference co-Player of the Year, and First Team NAIA All-American, has been named the 2023-24 Preseason Player of the Year.
 
Pickens, a six-foot, two-inch forward from Helena, is one of the most dominant players the league has seen.
 
Last season, Pickens became just the second First Team All-American in program history (Hannah Dean) on the back of a monster season in which she averaged 17.6 points per game, alongside 7.0 rebounds per game and 90 total blocks on the year.
 
In just three seasons of work as a Saint, Pickens appears all over the Carroll record book and will look to expand on her already stellar resume in her final year of eligibility.
 
Kyndall Keller (Havre, Mont. / SR) joins Pickens on the Preseason All-Conference team.
 
Keller, a five-foot, nine-inch guard, was named as a Second Team All-Frontier selection in 2022-23.
 
The transfer guard made an immediate impact, establishing herself as one of the league's premier scorers after averaging 11.5 points per game, as well as 3.5 rebounds per game. The single-best free throw shooter in Carroll history (46-50, 92 percent) will be just another threat for opposing teams to game plan for in 2023-24.
 
As a team, the Carroll Women, who were both Frontier Conference regular season and tournament champions in 2022-23, were picked unanimously to repeat as conference champions.
 
Head Coach Rachelle Sayers' Saints have been the class of the conference for the past half-decade, and appear to have the pieces for another year of success.
 
The 2022-23 team finished 14-1 in conference play, and advanced to the NAIA National Tournament round of 16 before falling to eventual semifinalist, Dakota State (S.D.).
 
The group returns three of their five starters from a year ago, and brought in some high-profile prep players, as well as University of Montana transfer Willa Albrecht (Billings, Mont. / JR), and are primed for another deep run at an NAIA title.
 
The full list of preseason honors are as follows:
 
# TEAM (1st) POINTS
1. Carroll (5) 25
2t. Providence (1) 19
2t. Rocky Mountain 19
4t. Montana Western 10
4t. MSU-Northern 10
6. Montana Tech 7
 
PRESEASON PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Jamie Pickens, Carroll F 6-2 GR Helena, Mont.
 2022-23 NAIA First Team All-American
 2022-23 Frontier Co-Player of the Year
 2022-23 Frontier First Team All-Conference
 2021-22 Frontier First Team All-Conference
 2020-21 Frontier First Team All-Conference
 
PRESEASON ALL-CONFERENCE TEAM
Morgan Baird, Rocky Mountain F 5-11 JR Coquille, Ore.
Maddy Dixon, Providence C 6-0 SR Pomeroy, Wash.
Kyndall Keller, Carroll G 5-9 SR Havre, Mont.
Ashlee Maldonado, Providence G 5-7 GR Sunnyside, Wash.
Jordan Sweeney, Montana Western G 5-7 SR Oakley, Calif.
 
Carroll will open their season at home next Friday, October 27 at 7:30 p.m., as they host perennial power Indiana Wesleyan at the Carroll College PE Center.
 
Visit www.carrollathletics.com to purchase tickets for that game, as well as to stay up to date with everything going on in Carroll Athletics.