BILLINGS, Mont.- Looking to defend their Frontier Conference Title from 2024-25, the Battlin' Bears were picked tied for second in the Preseason Coaches' Poll, released by the Frontier Conference Monday morning. 

Coaches were not allowed to vote for their own teams.  The Frontier Conference has expanded to 12 full-time institutions this year.

First place is worth 11 points, second place is worth 10 points, third place is worth nine points, and so on to the last place with one point.

The Battlin' Bears earned 101 points, tying with Carroll College for second place in the conference preseason poll. 2024-25 North Star Athletic Association Champion Dakota State collected 11 first-place votes and was voted the favorite ahead of the 2025-26 season. The Trojans totaled an overall record of 25-5 a season ago and advanced to the second round of the NAIA National Championship Tournament. 

The Battlin' Bears finished the 2024-25 season with an overall record of 20-11, including a conference record of 11-4, en route to the first outright Frontier Conference regular season title since 1987-88. Rocky advanced to the Frontier Conference Tournament Championship and eventually earned an at-large bid to the NAIA National Championship Tournament as a ninth seed. 

It was the eighth qualification in program history and the seventh bid since the 2016-2017 season under Head Coach Wes Keller. The Battlin' Bears withstood a gauntlet of a conference schedule that featured four of the six Frontier programs that qualified for the NAIA National Championship, playing each of the teams three times in the regular season. Rocky's season ended in the First Round with an 89-79 defeat to the eighth-seed University of St. Francis. 

Head Coach Wes Keller was named the Frontier Conference Coach of the Year in the 2024-25 season for the second time in the past four seasons, leading Rocky to their fifth 20+ win season since 2017-18. 

Second-Team All-Conference honoree and 2024-25 Freshman of the Year Paige Wasson headlines the returners for Rocky's 2025-26 squad. Wasson averaged 11.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 1.3 steals, and 0.7 blocks per game. She ranked 11th in the Frontier Conference in points, third in rebounds, 13th in steals, and fourth in blocks per game. The freshman stepped in and started all 30 games for the Battlin' Bears and ranked second in the Frontier Conference in minutes played per game.

Isabelle Heggem and Iliana Moran also return after starting all 30 games for Rocky last season. Heggem ranked second in the Frontier Conference last season, averaging 1.3 blocks per game and ranking inside the top-ten individually in field goal percentage (45.3%) and total rebounds (166). Moran ranked fourth in the Frontier Conference in assists, averaging 3.3 per game last season. She also ranked in the top ten individually in free throws made (63), free throw percentage (75.6%), assist-to-turnover ratio (1.6), and steals (45). 

Other key bench players returning to the 2025-26 roster include Brenna Linse, Angie Cavanaugh, Madeline Heggem, Gabriella Biittner, and Tailyn Black. 

The Battlin' Bears averaged one transfer to the varsity roster in Jordan Labrador-Hallett, who averaged six points per game and shot 35% from three-point range at Arizona Western College a season ago. 

Rocky Women's Basketball begins their season on Monday, November 3rd, hosting Bushnell University at home to open their season. After just one non-conference game, the Battlin' Bears will start their conference schedule on November 14th against Carroll College at home. Other non-conference contests will include a pair of exhibitions against MSU Billings, two more matchups with Cascade Collegiate Conference opponents in the Thanksgiving Classic, hosted by Carroll College, and three games in Arizona at the Cactus Classic in December against two teams that were NAIA National Tournament qualifiers a season ago. 

The full preseason poll can be found below. 
 

2025-26 Frontier Conference Women's Basketball Preseason Coaches' Poll
Rank	School (First Place Votes)	Total Points
1	Dakota State (S.D.) (11)	121
T2	Carroll (Mont.)	101
T2	Rocky Mountain (Mont.)	101
4	Providence (Mont.)	91
5	Montana Tech (1)	81
6	Bellevue (Neb.)	68
7	Montana State-Northern	58
8	Valley City State (N.D.)	55
9	Mayville State (N.D.)	37
10	Dickinson State (N.D.)	35
11	Montana Western	32
12	Bismarck State (N.D.)	12