THIS WEEK IN COUGAR ATHLETICS

Swimming – The Cougars will send a total of six student-athletes to represent the U of R at the Canada West Swimming Championships this weekend at the University of Lethbridge. Eyad Albassiouny, Daniel Gomez, Brent Hill, and Chris Myers qualified for the conference meet for the men’s team, while Jacee Kaczmar and Eva Madar will compete on the women’s side. The conference meet runs from Friday to Sunday at the Max Bell Regional Aquatic Centre on the U of L campus.

Men’s Hockey – The Cougars (3-10-1) took three out of a possible four points last weekend against Saskatchewan, winning 3-1 in front of a packed The Co-operators Centre crowd on Friday and falling 2-1 in a shootout on Saturday in Saskatoon. Looking to make up even more ground in the Canada West standings, the Cougars are back at it this weekend with two home games against No. 10-ranked Mount Royal. Game times are scheduled for 7 p.m. on Friday and 2:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Women’s Volleyball – The Cougars’ Canada West record fell to 3-7 on the season after a pair of four-set road losses to No. 9-ranked Calgary last weekend. And they host UBC Okanagan this Friday and Saturday in what will be the second consecutive weekend against a nationally ranked opponent, as the Heat come in ranked No. 3 in the CIS. The teams will start at 6 p.m. on Friday, with first serve scheduled for 5 p.m. on Saturday.

Men’s Volleyball – The Cougars dropped a pair of road matches to Calgary last weekend as their conference record drops to 1-9 for the year. Now with just four matches left on the Canada West schedule before the December break, the Cougars are back at home this weekend with two matches against a UBC Okanagan (0-12) team that’s still searching for its first conference victory of the season. The Cougars and the Heat are scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and 6:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Track & Field – The Cougars host part of their first meet of the 2014-15 season this Saturday upstairs at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport. The Intrasquad Meet will have four track events in addition to the triple jump and the long jump, and will stretch from 11 a.m. to about 1:45 p.m. at the CKHS.

Women’s Hockey – The Cougars continued their recent surge with two wins over Saskatchewan last weekend, getting overtime goals from Emma Waldenberger and Kylie Gavelin on back-to-back nights to give them six wins in their last seven games. The Cougars (3-5-3-1) are currently fifth in the Canada West standings and return to action this weekend against eighth-place Mount Royal (0-1-9-2). Game time is scheduled for 7 p.m. (MST) on Friday and 3 p.m. on Saturday.

Women’s Basketball – Winners of four consecutive Canada West games after 77-54 and 71-58 home wins over Calgary last weekend, the Cougars (4-2) now sit in a tie for third place in the Pioneer Division standings with Winnipeg. The Cougars continue the Canada West schedule this weekend with a pair of games at Lethbridge, which comes into the weekend with a 3-3 conference mark. Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m. (MST) on Friday and 5 p.m. on Saturday.

Men’s Basketball – The Cougars recorded a weekend split with Calgary at the CKHS, including an impressive 85-76 win over the No. 10-ranked and previously undefeated Dinos on Friday night that saw Jonathan Tull score a season-high 28 points for the U of R. Tull, who was named the Canada West Third Star of the Week for his efforts, and the rest of the Cougars will travel to Lethbridge this weekend for two games against the 4-2 Pronghorns.

Wrestling – Coming off the men’s wrestling team’s annual trip to the Dakotas, both wrestling teams return to the mat this weekend at the Huskie Open in Saskatoon on Saturday. It’ll be the last competitive meet of the season for both the men’s and the women’s teams, which will both break for the month of December before hosting the Cougar Invitational on Jan. 4.

(Courtesy Braden Konschuh)