THIS WEEK IN COUGAR ATHLETICS
Women’s Soccer – The Cougars (0-4-4) ended up with a loss and a draw on their Alberta swing over the weekend, falling 2-1 to the Prairie Division-leading Alberta Pandas on Saturday before playing Mount Royal to a 1-1 knot on Sunday. They’ll now prepare for a home-and-home against provincial rival Saskatchewan, with the teams set to play at the U of R Field on Thursday night (5:00) before playing a rematch on Saturday night (7:00) in Saskatoon.
Men’s Hockey – The Cougars travelled to Minnesota last weekend for a pair of games against NCAA Div. I opposition, losing to both St. Cloud State and Minnesota State in their final tuneups before Canada West play begins this weekend. The Cougars, who went 2-2 in their four games against U SPORTS teams during non-conference play, will host Saskatchewan on Friday night (7:00) in the season opener at The Co-operators Centre and will also play the Huskies on Saturday night (7:00) in Saskatoon.
Women’s Hockey – The Canada West schedule opens this weekend and the Cougars get things going with a home-and-home series against provincial rival Saskatchewan. The teams will play in Saskatoon on Friday night before closing out the weekend series on Saturday night at The Co-operators Centre. Both games will face off at 7 p.m. After this weekend, the Cougars will have two consecutive weekends at home with games against Mount Royal (Oct. 13/14) and UBC (Oct. 20/21).
Men’s Volleyball – The Cougars finished with a 1-4 record at a non-conference tournament hosted by Brandon University last weekend. They came out of the gates with a nice four-set win over Sherbrooke, but lost to Montreal, Winnipeg, and the host Bobcats to finish off pool play and then lost a four-set rematch to Sherbrooke in the tournament semifinal. The Cougars will have Brandon, UBC Okanagan, and Saskatchewan at the CKHS this weekend for the Cougar Invitational. The tournament will consist of four sessions of back-to-back matches, with sessions scheduled to begin at 6:00 PM on Friday, at 11:00 AM and 5:00 PM on Saturday, and at 11:00 AM on Sunday.
Women’s Basketball – The Cougars had their first games of the season against U SPORTS opposition over the weekend, losing 85-71 on Friday to a strong McGill team in Montreal before recovering for an 80-65 win over Carleton in Ottawa on Sunday. The U of R continues the non-conference schedule this weekend with the Calgary Cup, a tournament hosted by the University of Calgary from Thursday to Saturday which will see the Cougars play Acadia, Waterloo, and the host Dinos.
Men’s Basketball – The non-conference schedule opens up this weekend for the Cougars, who will travel to Montreal to take part in a tournament hosted by Concordia. They’ll open against the host Stingers on Friday before taking on OUA opponents York and Dalhousie on Saturday and Sunday. The Cougars will also participate in tournaments hosted by Waterloo and Thompson Rivers before they begin Canada West play in November.
Rams Football (U SPORTS Ranking: No. 8) – The Rams (3-2) took a 50-40 win over Saskatchewan on Friday night in what was the highest-scoring game ever played between the two provincial rivals. Noah Picton and Atlee Simon drove the offence in the win, with Picton becoming just the third player in U of R history to throw five touchdown passes in a single game and Simon rushing 18 times for 163 yards and adding seven catches for 72 yards to finish with a game-high 235 all-purpose yards. The Rams will have this weekend off before returning to action on Oct. 14 at Alberta.
Women’s Volleyball – The Cougars finished in fifth place at the Unruh Realty Invitational in Winnipeg after going 3-2 in their five matches at the non-conference tournament. They went 1-2 in pool play including a five-set win over Brock, but came up with consecutive wins over Toronto and the host Wesmen to win the consolation side. The Cougars have two more matches before Canada West play starts, both of which will be played at Ochapowace First Nation against the University of Saskatchewan.
Cross Country – The U of R men’s team placed second at the University of Saskatchewan Open thanks to three runners that placed in the top 10 in the overall standings, including Adam Strueby who placed second with an 8K time of 26:18. Marc Turmel and Alex Eiswerth finished in sixth and eighth place, respectively, while Tianna Dodds led the Cougars with a 10th-place finish in the 8K women’s race (33:54). The team will next compete in the UVic Invitational on Oct. 14.
(Braden Konschuh/U of R Athletics)
