The Lady Raiders hit the court this weekend for their first games of the season. Coach Julie Herman sat down with KUCB's Lauren Rosenthal to recap the girls' performance at Bristol Bay High School -- and the challenges they'll face on the road to state championships.

Lauren Rosenthal: We’re here to talk about this weekend’s games in Naknek.

Julie Herman: We flew out and played the Bristol Bay Angels. Bristol Bay always puts together a great team. Thursday night’s game was 45-47 at the end with the Angels winning by two. Friday’s game was 40-52, so we lost by a couple more. But then, Saturday morning, we came back. And it was 42-45. So it was a very competitive weekend for us. We learned a lot.

LR: What are you planning to work on this week in practice? I understand you do have some games coming up.

JH: Yeah, this week what we’re really going to work on is shots off the dribble — being able to take that opportunity. And of course, I always like to work on some new plays to keep the other team on their toes.

LR: You have a very strong returning team with some older players. Would you mind telling me who they are?

JH: We are very senior-heavy. Kanesia Price, down in the post, she is just having a breakout year. Very defensively strong. She averaged about 10 points a game this weekend for us, and for a post, that’s fantastic. Louisa Seman is another post player for us. She’s physically strong and fit and just does a really good job keeping people away from her and being able to post up.

We’ve got a solid junior class as well. We’ve got a great depth of seven or eight kids that I think will be very helpful for us as the season moves on.

LR: The girls will definitely be advancing to regionals. Do you feel like this squad has a good chance of making it to state?

JH: This season is kind of a different season, because we have heard that Togiak — the fourth team in our region — hasn’t put a team together. And that could change. But that leaves three teams in [the southwest 2A] region — us, Bristol Bay and Dillingham — with two berths to state. Dillingham always puts a great team together. We know we’re going to have to be really fierce to beat them. But I feel really confident seeing Bristol Bay that we definitely can give them a game.

I think all three of our teams are going to have to work really hard for a win at regionals. We’re pretty excited about our upcoming six weeks of the season.

The Lady Raiders will play King Cove at home this week. The games start Thursday at 7 p.m.