As any year-round Arizona resident will tell you, the best way to beat the summer heat is to head north. While rising temperatures aren’t the reason for the Mercury’s current trip to Flagstaff, the fresh locale has its benefits for the WNBA team.

The Mercury headed to the land of pine trees, mountaintops and a 5,900-foot change in altitude earlier this week to work on everything from conditioning to team chemistry to team defense. Stress that last one. The Mercury coaching staff realizes the team can’t rest on the laurels of back-to-back preseason wins.

“We've got a lot of work to do defensively,” Mercury Head Coach Carrie Graf said after a Thursday morning practcie at Northern Arizona University’s basketball facilities. “We got a lot of offensive guns this year, but we really need to become a good defensive team. That’s the major area we need to develop.”

Defense is one thing, but improving endurance is completely another. Whether it’s tackling the peaks as a hiker or heading up and down an indoor basketball court, a 7,000-foot elevation has a way of winding even the most in-shape athlete. The Mercury, coaches included, noticed a difference almost immediately.

“The effects of being up here…,” Graf said, “it’s tough to run up and down. There’s less oxygen in the air. You have to work a lot harder to get done what you want to get done. When we come back down to Phoenix, things will seem a little bit easier.”

Forward Kayte Christensen, who’s recently weathered a bad toe and is now dealing with a touch of the flu, agreed. “It’s a noticeable difference," she said. "A little more for me since I haven’t practiced as much as the other girls to this point. But I know they’re tired and they’re feeling it. We’re all winded.”

Unofficially, the trip was another chance for the team to build on their camaraderie that Christensen says has already been formed in the brief time spent with one another. Coming off a low-key team dinner at a local Olive Garden on Wednesday night, the Mercury didn’t feel the need to do any sort of rookie hazing like a lot of pro teams engage in with their first-year players.

“Adrian is the only one who cares about anything like that,” the forward said, “and no one takes her seriously anyway (laughs). None of us listen to her, so why should the rookies?

“Everything is just building on the bond we’ve already formed. We have a core strong group of girls with good chemistry.”

The Mercury’s brief time in Flagstaff gives northern Arizona residents an up-close look at a team expected to be much-improved from their eight-win season a year ago. For the Mercury, the alternate venue gives the team a chance to focus on a few things and see what they have to work with this season. Two practices a day, broken up with one-on-one coach-player meetings, keep the girls busy. But yes, they're anxious to return home to Phoenix on Friday.

“Their goal is to work us really hard and try to take advantage of training in the elevation, and take advantage of the numbers (of players in camp),” Christensen concluded. “In a week or two, we’ll have at most 13 people. If Edwina Brown’s on the (injured list), we’ll have 12 people in practice. So there’s a lot of scrimmages, defensive breakdowns, press breakers right now. These are little things you have to put in before the season starts.”