HELENA — With Carroll College coming off a two straight Frontier Conference wins, MTN Sports' Jonny Walker sat down with Fighting Saints head women's basketball coach Rachelle Sayers.
A full transcript from the video interview is available below:
MTN Sports: Two wins last week. You've now officially seen every team in the Frontier Conference. You’re now one third of the way through your conference season. What kind of perspective does that give you?
Rachelle Sayers: "Well, we have two rounds to go. We have really good teams in the Frontier. We have great coaches. We have experienced coaches. We have coaches that have coached against each other for a long time. And so, second round, everybody's tweaking a little things, you know, things here and there and making adjustments. And so, you know, we just have to continue to keep getting better."
MTN Sports: And some of these teams you saw earlier, you played at home. Some of them you played on the road. It's going to flip now. How much does that home-versus-away dynamic play into these Frontier Conference games?
Rachelle Sayers: "You know, especially with our group — an experienced group that has been through this before — we kind of understand whether you're home or whether you're away, and no matter who you step out there on the court against, it’s going to be a battle. I mean, there's going to be no blowouts. The games are going to be tight. And it's really going to come down to the team that can make plays at the end of the game, the team that's disciplined throughout the game, the team that takes advantage of the opportunities they're able to create."
MTN Sports: Talk about those key players. This team swept the Frontier Conference player of the week honors this week: Kyndall Keller's offensive player of the week, Willa Albrecht is the defensive player of the week. As their coach, how do you feel when you see your players getting that kind of recognition?
Rachelle Sayers: "Well, it's obviously rewarding to see them be recognized. And I think knowing how much work they put in, whether it was this summer, being here all summer, working out every day or, you know, it's every day before practice. It's in the afternoon in between classes. They continue to work on their games. They don’t just show up on game day ready to go. They continue to prepare and work."
Carroll (12-6 overall, 4-1 Frontier Conference) hosts Montana Western on Thursday and visits Providence on Saturday.
