Two Carroll College squads are sitting pretty after reaching the midway point of their conference seasons.

On Saturday, the second-ranked Saints football team and 19th-ranked volleyball squad both set themselves apart from the rest of the competition with wins over teams that were previously tied for the Frontier Conference lead.

The football team (6-0 overall, 5-0 conference) defeated Eastern Oregon University 37-17 while the volleyball team (15-5 overall, 6-1 conference) beat defending Frontier champ Lewis-Clark State in four sets.

Both Carroll teams now prepare to face all the same conference squads again when they head into the second half of the season.

"We talked about that as a staff, we have to make sure our players realize that this is the halfway point and we accomplished a lot, but we've still got to worry about everybody," said head football coach Mike Van Diest. "We can't have a letdown."

Van Diest said while he's always had a serious bunch of players come game time, the Saints had a quiet confidence to them on Saturday, facing a Mountaineers squad now 4-2 overall, 4-1 in conference.

"I think we kind of expected EOU to come out and bring their guns at us," said senior linebacker Mac Gordon. "But we performed so well offensively and defensively, that wasn't really an issue."

The Saints have won the last nine Frontier championships- either outright or shared - and were expected at the beginning of the season to once again vie for the conference crown.

Standing in their way is a group of experienced teams that are just finding their strides.

EOU remains the biggest surprise after going 5-6 the previous season, but the hottest team right now could be Montana Tech (3-2 conference, 3-3 overall), which won its last two games to jump to third place in the rankings.

"The conference is kind of confusing this year, but I see some teams stepping up," Gordon said. "I see EOU still being a force."

Certainly one thing has defined the football teams in the Frontier through the start of the season: offense.

Three teams are ranked in the top 10 in total offensive yards per game - Rocky Mountain College (seventh, 501.2 ypg), EOU (ninth, 472 ypg) and Carroll (10th, 468.8 ypg).

Rocky, EOU and the University of Montana Western, meanwhile, are in the top 12 in passing while the Saints are the lone Frontier team breaking into the top 10 in rushing at seventh with 233.2 ypg.

That doesn't mean the Saints haven't gone to the air much, just that they haven't had to. Their defense, meanwhile, is being challenged by the aerial game week in and week out.

"You see a lot of similarities," Gordon said.

The Carroll players are enjoying the challenge.

"It just makes everything more exciting," he said.

The volleyball team is in a little bit of the same situation. Though they run their triangle offense through the middle, they consistently see some of the top outside hitters in the nation during their matches.

Meanwhile, only the University of Great Falls has been able to beat them, winning their match in five close sets.

"I think we have the mentality of doing what we do best," Boyle said. "There's not many teams across the country that run as quick of an offense as us, or as fluidly.

"We have six players putting the ball away consistently, and our setters are getting it to the right people each night."

That's helped break new ground for Boyle, who, in five years at the helm, has never had a nationally ranked team.

After beating the No. 22 Warriors and taking over the conference lead, the Saints slipped into to the No. 19 spot, which they share with Biola University (Calif.).

LCSC and UGF remain in second in the Frontier standings with 5-2 records, while Rocky, a team Carroll hadn't defeated in four years, is fourth with a 4-3 record.

"Right now we're taking it one match at a time," Boyle said.

But, she will contend, the team set its standards high at the beginning of the season and are looking to reach some very lofty goals.

"In our discussion with the girls tonight, we said they've earned (the ranking), from the end of our season last year, through spring ball and the summer, these girls knew a year ago what their goals were," the coach said. "They've really pushed hard to get to where we are right now. The nice thing as a coach is that they're not satisfied."

Jeff Windmueller: 447-4065 or jeff.windmueller@helenair.com