THIS WEEK IN COUGAR ATHLETICS
Women's Basketball – vs. Calgary, Friday (6:15 p.m.) at CKHS
Men's Hockey – vs. Alberta, Friday (7:00 p.m.) at The Co-operators Centre
Men's Basketball – vs. Calgary, Friday (8:15 p.m.) at CKHS
Track & Field – at SGI Canada Indoor Games, Friday/Saturday at Regina Fieldhouse
Women's Basketball – vs. Calgary, Saturday (5:00 p.m.) at CKHS
Men's Basketball – vs. Calgary, Saturday (7:00 p.m.) at CKHS
Men's Hockey – vs. Alberta, Saturday (7:00 p.m.) at The Co-operators Centre
Away Events
Women's Volleyball – at UBC Okanagan, Friday (6:00 p.m. PST) in Kelowna, B.C.
Women's Hockey – at Alberta, Friday (7:00 p.m. MST) in Edmonton, Alta.
Men's Volleyball – at UBC Okanagan, Friday (8:00 p.m. PST) in Kelowna, B.C.
Women's Volleyball – at UBC Okanagan, Saturday (5:00 p.m. PST) in Kelowna, B.C.
Women's Hockey – at Alberta, Saturday (6:00 p.m. MST) in Edmonton, Alta.
Men's Volleyball – at UBC Okanagan, Saturday (7:00 p.m. PST) in Kelowna, B.C.
Track & Field – at Windsor Team Challenge, Sunday in Windsor, Ont.
Men's Hockey – The Cougars (11-11-2) had a huge road sweep over Manitoba last weekend to move past the Bisons for fourth place in the Canada West standings. The U of R won 3-1 on Friday night, then got goals from three different defencemen – including John Sonntag's winner in double overtime – in a 3-2 victory on Saturday afternoon. Now two points up on Manitoba and Mount Royal, the Cougars host No. 1-ranked Alberta this weekend at The Co-operators Centre. Game time is set for 7:00 on both Friday night and Saturday night.
Women's Basketball (CIS Ranking: No. 4) – The three-way tie atop the Prairie Division remains intact after the Cougars' road wins over Fraser Valley and Trinity Western on Friday and Saturday and two-win weekends by both Alberta and Saskatchewan as well. The Cougars pulled out a 64-62 victory over the No. 7-ranked Cascades before trouncing Trinity Western by a 97-57 margin to improve to 16-2 on the season and run their Canada West winning streak to 12 games. Nicole Clarke scored 19 points in the team's win over Fraser Valley and added 16 on Saturday to earn Canada West Second Star of the Week honours for the Cougars, who host Calgary (11-7) this Friday and Saturday at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport.
Men's Basketball – The Cougars (3-15) led in the second half of both games last weekend, but ultimately lost 84-71 to Fraser Valley on Friday and 67-59 to Trinity Western on Saturday. Brendan Hebert had nine assists over the two games to give him 345 for his career, and the fourth-year guard now needs just three more to pass Zach Michell as the school's all-time assist leader. He'll almost certainly do that this weekend at home as the Cougars have Calgary (5-13) in town at the CKHS.
Track & Field (Men's CIS Ranking: No. 8 / Women's CIS Ranking: No. 10) – The men's and women's track teams combined for two CIS standards and two new school records over the weekend at the Bison Classic in Winnipeg. Joy Becker's jump of 5.97 metres in the long jump hit the CIS standard and also broke Janine Polischuk's school record set back in 2008, while Adrea Propp's time of 1:34.05 in the 600-metre run broke her own U of R mark set two weekends previous. On the men's side, Jeremy Eckert hit the CIS standard in the high jump after clearing the bar at 2.10 metres. The Cougars will compete at the SGI Canada Indoor Games at the Regina Fieldhouse on Friday and Saturday and a select group will also travel east for the Windsor Team Challenge on Sunday.
Women's Volleyball – The Cougars (10-10) have now won seven of their past eight matches after a pair of convincing three-set home wins over Thompson Rivers which saw Desiree Ates break the school's record for most kills in a season. The two victories clinched a Canada West postseason spot for the U of R, which will finish the conference schedule this Friday and Saturday at UBC Okanagan (12-8) before beginning the playoffs against one of Brandon, Manitoba, or Trinity Western the following weekend.
Men's Volleyball – The Cougars (2-18) split for the second consecutive weekend, defeating No. 5-ranked Thompson Rivers in four sets on Friday before losing a five-set match to the WolfPack on Saturday. Caleb Eschbach had 96 assists and 22 digs in the two matches, while Andrew Nelson put down 36 kills and hit .253 for the weekend. The Cougars close out the 2013-14 season this Friday and Saturday with two matches against UBC Okanagan (4-16) in Kelowna, B.C.
Women's Hockey – The Cougars (11-11-4) dropped a pair of 3-2 decisions to Manitoba over the weekend, losing in overtime on Friday night and in regulation on Saturday afternoon. The U of R will finish in fifth place in the Canada West standings regardless of the outcome of the Cougars' final two conference games at Alberta this weekend, then they'll prepare for a best-of-three conference quarterfinal series against either Manitoba or Saskatchewan.(Courtesy Braden Konschuh/U of R Athletics)
