Women's Basketball | 03/14/25 | 12:00 PM

ASHLAND, Ore. - The (RV) Carroll College Women's Basketball team will begin the 2025 NAIA Women's Basketball Championship this evening with a First Round contest against No. 20 Wayland Baptist at 8:30 p.m. (MDT) at the Lithia Motors Pavilion on the campus of Southern Oregon.

The Fighting Saints (19-11, 10-5) will make the 16th appearance in the NAIA National Tournament in school history tonight, drawing a 10-seed with an at-large berth into this year's championship. Their opening round opponent will be the seventh-seeded Flying Queens of Wayland Baptist (25-4, 21-3).

For the seventh-straight season, the Fighting Saints will get their shot at the NAIA National Championship, earning a spot in the 64-team tournament. The Saints have appeared in the tournament all but two years since the 2012-13 season, and the 2024-25 team will look to match their deep run from a season ago.

Last year, Carroll advanced to the semifinal round of the big dance, with wins over Embry-Riddle, Oregon Tech, Loyola, and Dakota State in the best season in program history.

This year, the Saints will have a much different looking road if they wish to replicate the '23-24 success. The 10th-seeded Saints are on the road for the opening round pods for the first time since 2022, and find themselves as one of the two lower seeds in their four-team pod.

Standing in their way this evening are the Fighting Queens, who earned an at-large bid out of the Sooner Athletic Conference. The Queens are one of the nation's best offensive teams, averaging 82.8 points per game, the sixth-best figure in the entire NAIA. They're led by '23-24 Third Team All-American, and this year's SAC Player of the Year Megan Nestor, who averages 19.9 points and 13.4 rebounds per game. 

The First Round tilt will be a clash of styles, as the Queens' top-tier offense runs into the NAIA's No. 7 scoring defense in Carroll College. Entering the postseason, the Saints are allowing just 54.7 points per game, their fourth-lowest since the 2003-04 season ('17-18, 52.4 ppg | '18-19, 52.0 ppg | '21-22, 52.9 ppg).

The Saints also boast their own respective Conference Player of the Year, Kyndall Keller (Havre, Mont. / R-SR) who led the league throughout conference play with 16.1 points per game, and a 40.3 three-point percentage, and is the third-straight Saint to earn the Frontier Player of the Year honor (Jamie Pickens, '23 & '24).

The Saints have won six-consecutive opening round games in the NAIA National Championship dating back to 2018, and have advanced to the Round of 16 each of the last three seasons.

Joining the Saints and Queens in the opening round pod is the second-seed, and host-school, Southern Oregon, who will play the 15-seed UC-Merced in tonight's other First Round game.

SOU and UC-Merced will kick the action off tonight with a 6 p.m. (MDT) game at the Lithia Motors pavilion before the Carroll-Wayland Baptist game follows at 7:30 p.m.

A pay-per-view live stream of both games can be found online HERE.

Catch Voice of the Saints, Nick Dietzen, and Carroll Sports Information Director, Conlan Burk, call the action live on Rewind 94.9 FM or online HERE.

Live stats for the game can be followed along HERE.

Be sure to visit www.carrollathletics.com this evening for a full recap of the action, and to stay up to date with everything going on in Carroll Athletics.

FOLLOW THE FIGHTING SAINTS
Facebook: @carrollcollegeathletics
Instagram: @cc_saints
X: @CCsaints
#MarchOn