There are so many things to play for in a college basketball season that at times it's hard to remember what's the big prize and what's the trimming.

For the Carroll College the disappointment of finishing second in the Frontier Conference's regular season and tournament is a distant memory. Winning a pair of games at the NAIA national tournament and advancing to the Elite Eight for the first time in school history will do that.

"There's Union and there's everybody else," head coach Shawn Nelson said of the Tennessee team also in the national tourney. "They're just unbelievably talented and skilled. Tennessee is the hotbed of women's basketball.

"The tournament is much different than the football playoffs. To win it, you have to play five games in seven days and you don't get any time to prepare for your next opponent."

The Fighting Saints lost three times to league rival Lewis-Clark State prior to the NAIA tourney, but went just as far as the Warriors in the end. Both schools have been regular participants in the NAIA tournament over the past five years and both continue to gain the experience necessary to become a serious threat to win the national title.

"We took a big step towards gaining the experience needed to compete at the highest level," Nelson said.

Carroll downed Westmont College, Calif., in the first round 61-59, then beat Harris-Stowe State, Mo., in the Sweet 16 62-53 to advance to the Elite Eight where it lost to Vanguard, Calif., 71-56. Vanguard would go on to claim the national title.

In the final game the Saints were haunted by turnovers, which plagued them in most of their losses this year. Carroll committed 28 turnovers against Vanguard.

"Carroll College beat Carroll College in the Elite Eight game and that comes with experience," Nelson said. "We're still learning even after five years of coming here, but Vanguard has been here 15, 16, 17 years in a row.

"We just weren't quite as focused and driven in that game. I think we had a feeling of satisfaction. Vanguard is by no means out of our league and I think if we'd had a week to prepare for them, we would've beat them."

Three years ago Nelson returned to Helena determined to increase the inside strength of his squad after seeing his team lose the inside battles due to a lack of physicality. Now that he has the inside players of that ilk, he's looking to make that extra pass inside without giving up too much on the perimeter. Obviously, it's a little tricky.

"Next year we'll have a pure point guard in Alisha Green," Nelson said of the current redshirt freshman out of Spokane. "She has a sense of how to play kind of like (former Carroll men's star) Shane Gamradt. The past four years our point guards were converted shooting guards. Caitlin (Courchaine) was extremely good at getting the ball getting it up the court for a quick layup, but we need to see the open players on the wing, too."

The Saints wrapped up the year at 27-6 and loses five seniors -- Jolene Fuzesy, Laci High, Caitlin Courchaine, Danielle Maloney and Tiffany Rochelle -- to graduation this year.

"It was nice to see our five seniors on the floor at the end," he said. "It would've been better if it was the championship game. It was a bittersweet ending and a very emotional moment. That senior class took us further than we've ever gone."

All five were key contributors this season, but Nelson's teams have always used big rotations off the bench and he has several players ready to step into starting roles in 2008-09.

"We'll probably bring in two transfers and we have a very solid redshirt freshman class," Nelson added. "We have an all-conference player in Elly Bruursema and some young posts that really made gains at the national tourney. We'll be real young, but very experienced."