DENVER – MSU Denver coach Tanya Haave has come to a decision.
 
"I need to fire myself as schedule-maker," she said, laughing.
 
The Roadrunners travel to Minnesota this weekend for games Saturday against Nos. 18 and 22 Minnesota State-Moorhead on Friday and against St. Cloud State (Minn.) on Saturday.
 
"All kidding aside, I think it's good that we're challenging our team," Haave said. "(Minnesota State-Moorhead) is another NCAA tournament team, another team that's ranked. It's another opportunity for us to see where we are. It'll be interesting to see how much this team can develop."
 
Haave tested her veteran team last year in the non-conference season, and after a slow start that carried over into league play, MSU Denver surged to a 13-4 record down the stretch to wind up in third place in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.
 
Included in last year's slow start was a home matchup against Minnesota State-Moorhead, which beat MSU Denver 62-41.
 
Friday's game against the 2-0 Dragons, who are picked to win the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference, is set for a 5 p.m. MST tipoff.
 
Minnesota State-Moorhead, which opened the season with a 58-56 win over 11^th-ranked Central Missouri, features preseason All-NSIC selection Megan Hintz, a 6-foot-2 center who averaged 21.0 points and 7.0 rebounds while shooting 69.6 percent from the field to earn the league's player of the week.
 
St. Cloud State, picked sixth in the Northern Sun, won its season opener against NAIA program Valley City State (N.D.). The Huskies play MSU Denver at 5 p.m. MST Saturday in the second day of the MSU-Moorhead Classic.
 
MSU-Moorhead was 27-7 last season, while St. Cloud State was 19-10.
 
"We're going up there with the intention of trying to be successful," Haave said. "We'd like to try to at least get a split on the rood, and if we can get both it would be a fantastic weekend. We're looking forward to the challenge, and we know it will be difficult."
 
Last weekend, the Roadrunners lost their opener 69-51 to Texas A&M-Commerce, but then bounced back and played defending national champion Lubbock Christian (Texas), ranked Nos. 2 and 1, close to the end in a 70-60 setback.
 
There were both positives and negatives to be drawn from the solid game against Lubbock Christian.
 
"And Commerce is good, too," Haave said. "We got a lot more confidence, but we still lost. We're still 0-2 and we need to get over the top. We aren't there yet. I told them that while it was good, we still have work to do. There was big improvement from Friday (Texas A&M-Commerce) to Saturday (Lubbock Christian), but we need to do that in every practice and every game."