Sophomore Mikailah Dyer dribbles the ball last Sunday against Minnesota-Crookston. Photo by Jennifer Friese/The Dakota Student.

With the snow starting to fall and temperatures starting to drop, winter sports are starting to kick off at UND, and the women’s basketball team’s season is already in full swing.

UND coach Travis Brewster and the rest of the players are looking to build off a successful season last year, where the team not only won the Big Sky Tournament, but advanced to the NCAA March Madness Tournament.

The team this year is looking to replicate that success minus Madi Buck, who was the Big Sky Player of the Year.

UND kicked off the year with two exhibition games at the Betty, facing off against Bemidji State and Minnesota-Crookston last week.

In the first game, the Green and White won convincingly by locking down on the defensive end, beating Bemidji State 79-42.

While the box score indicates that UND took care of business against Minnesota-Crookston, the game was a little closer than Coach Brewster would have liked.

The team got off to a slow start, with the Golden Eagles actually leading the game at the half, 31-28.

That all changed in the second half. The Green and White came out more focused and started to play like the champions they were. In the end, UND throttled Crookston in the second half, outscoring them 42-19 and winning 70-50.

While his team has played well in most cases, Brewster still needs to see improvement.

“To be quite truthful, I think we are a little behind,” Brewster said. “When we hit the floor last year, we were light years ahead of where we are now. The thing that’s different this year that I am very pleased with is the intensity. I think some of the things that you saw last year from our crew was as we went through the year, we progressively got better intensity wise, and this year intensity wise, I am very happy with that part of it.”

Now that the exhibition games are completed, UND looks to bring that intensity away from the Betty for its season opener against Colorado.

The two teams have not played each other since the 2010-11 season, when Colorado beat UND 56-67.

In order to start the season off with a bang, the captains of the team will have to lead by example, a task they are already proving they are up for.

Seniors Siri Burck, Emily Evers and junior Mia Loyd have played well in the starting two exhibition games on both the offensive and defensive ends of the court.

The journey back to the NCAA Tournament starts this Saturday in Boulder, Colo.

Alex Stadnik is a staff writer for The Dakota Student. He can be reached at [email protected].