MINOT, N.D. – It will be a homecoming for Minot State women's basketball head coach Mike Brandt whose team opens the 2022-23 season this weekend on the road, playing a pair of neutral-court games against Southeastern Oklahoma State in Sterling, Colorado.

The openers, Saturday at 6 p.m. (MT) and Sunday at 1 p.m. (MT), will be on the court where Brandt himself played junior-college ball then coached for 13 season, at Northeastern Junior College.

"It's kind of a special trip for me because this is where I'm from, Sterling, Colorado," Minot State's second-year head man said.

Of course, opening a new season with his Minot State team also makes this weekend exciting as all the preseason conditioning and practice is set to pay off.

"It's going to be so nice to square up with officials and against an opposing team in our game uniforms and really get after it," Brandt said. "It's really important to really get started and establish who your starters are going to be and the pecking order."

A team that is an equal mix of returners and newcomers, finding the starters and the pecking order will be important, but already Coach Brandt has identified a few players he expects to lead the way starting with returners Kate Head and Natasha Elliott.

Both from Brisbane, Australia, Head is a 5-foot-5 senior guard who last season tied the NCAA Division II-era record for assists in a season with 123 and set the single-game record with 11 assists in a 70-66 loss to Maryville (Mo.).

Along with dishing out a record number of assists, she was second on the team in scoring at 11.8 points per game and grabbed 2.8 rebounds per contest.

"Something about her, she doesn't take a day off," Brandt said, adding, "I think she's playing her best basketball, by far, that I've seen."

While Head will be a team leader in a variety of ways on the hardwood, so will Elliott, a 5-11 junior forward who averaged 8.2 points and 4.6 rebounds per game last season.

"She's kind of playing a different role this year, she's posting up a little bit along with shooting the 3 outside, and driving a little bit," Brandt said, adding that the Beavers will look to take advantage of mismatches against the multi-talented Elliott.

While they lead the way among five returners who saw action last season, the Beavers also have five true freshmen on the roster, a few of whom have already shown Coach Brandt they're ready to make an impact.

One is 5-5 guard Vilborg Jonsdottir from Njardvik, Reykjanesbaer, Iceland, and the other is 6-4 center Emily Srejma from Fargo, N.D.

Brandt says that the Beavers will benefit from Jonsdottir's experience playing at a high level internationally, and Srejma will make an impact with her side inside.

As for this weekend's openers against the Savage Storm, who went 12-17 last season, Coach Brandt says the team is a good team in a good conference, and that they played a lot of zone defense a year ago, but he isn't sure any of that will matter this weekend.

"You've got two teams coming in there that want to start their season off 1-0, or 2-0," he said, adding, "it's going to be a battle, it's going be a fight."