HELENA — Carroll was voted the preseason favorite in the 2023-24 Frontier Conference Women’s Basketball Coaches Poll, and Fighting Saints graduate forward Jamie Pickens was picked as the league's preseason player of the year.
The six Frontier head coaches voted on the projected order of finish and the preseason awards, which were announced Tuesday. Carroll received five first-place votes for a total of 25 points to earn the No. 1 ranking. The Saints are coming off a 27-6 season, regular-season and tournament conference championships, and a trip to the NAIA national tournament, where they fell in the round of 16.
Providence and Rocky Mountain each received 19 points in the poll to tie for second, while Montana Western and MSU-Northern tied for fourth with 10 points each. Montana Tech received seven points to place sixth.
Pickens, a 6-foot-2 forward from Helena, was the Frontier Conference co-player of the year and an NAIA first-team All-American last season when she averaged 17.6 points and 7.0 rebounds per game. She has also been a first-team all-Frontier Conference selection three times in her career.
Pickens is joined on the preseason all-Frontier Conference team by teammate Kyndall Keller, Providence's Maddy Dixon and Ashlee Maldonado, Rocky Mountain's Morgan Baird and Montana Western's Jordan Sweeney.
2023-24 Frontier Conference Preseason Coaches Poll
Fist-place votes in parentheses
1. Carroll (5) 25
T2. Providence (1) 19
T2. Rocky Mountain 19
T4. Montana Western 10
T4. MSU-Northern 10
6. Montana Tech 7
2023-24 Preseason All-Frontier Conference Team
Jamie Pickens, Gr., F, Carroll (MVP)
Maddy Dixon, Sr., C, Providence
Ashlee Maldonado, Gr., G, Providence
Morgan Baird, Jr., F, Rocky Mountain
Kyndall Keller, Sr., G, Carroll
Jordan Sweeney, Sr., G, Montana Western
