THIS WEEK IN COUGAR ATHLETICS

Women’s Soccer – After a weekend off, the Cougars (4-2-2) are back at home this Saturday and Sunday for a pair of pivotal matchups against MacEwan (6-1-1) in what will be the first Canada West competition between the University of Regina and the conference’s newest member in any sport. The Cougars enter the weekend in fifth place in the Prairie, but just one point behind Alberta for the fourth and final postseason berth in the division.

Men’s Hockey – The Cougars were in action at Manitoba last weekend, losing 6-0 on Friday and 4-1 on Saturday to fall to 0-4-0 on the season. The team is back at home this weekend where they’ll be tested by No. 1-ranked Alberta (3-1-0) at The Co-operators Centre. Game times are scheduled for 7:00 p.m. on both Friday and Saturday.

Women’s Basketball – The Cougars went 2-1 at a non-conference tournament in Brandon last weekend, losing their opening game 66-63 to Winnipeg before recovering for wins over Manitoba (76-50) and the host Bobcats (82-59) on Saturday and Sunday. The Cougars host a non-conference tournament of their own this weekend at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport. They’ll face Carleton on Thursday night (7:00), Fraser Valley on Friday night (7:00), and Saskatchewan on Saturday afternoon (1:00). The round-robin tournament will also have games on Thursday and Friday at 5 p.m. and on Saturday at 11 a.m.

Women’s Hockey – The Cougars (1-0-1) opened their Canada West schedule at home last weekend against Manitoba, losing 1-0 in double overtime on Friday night before Kylie Gavelin’s goal gave the U of R a 3-2 overtime win of its own on Saturday. Gavelin – who earned Canada West Second Star of the Week honours – and the rest of the Cougars will head to Edmonton this weekend to face No. 4-ranked Alberta on Friday night and Saturday afternoon.

Men’s Volleyball – The U of R hosted the Cougar Invitational over the weekend, a six-team non-conference tournament which was eventually won by Brandon with a 3-1 record. The host Cougars were the only team to knock off Brandon, winning a lengthy five-set match on Saturday night over the Bobcats. The Cougars now have a weekend off before beginning Canada West play on Oct. 17 and Oct. 18 against Manitoba.

Women’s Volleyball – The Cougars went 1-3 at the West Coast Invitational in Vancouver, with their victory coming in three sets over York on Saturday. The team compiled a 3-5 record in its challenging non-conference schedule which saw the Cougars battle teams ranked in the top five of the Canada West preseason poll in five of eight matches. Like the men’s team, the Cougars have the first week of the conference schedule off before playing their first Canada West matches of the season at Manitoba (Oct. 17/18).

Rams Football– The Rams (1-4) suffered a 59-7 loss at No. 2-ranked Calgary on Saturday afternoon, with a touchdown reception by Jared Janotta in the second quarter standing as the team’s only score of the game. With Canada West on its bye week, the Rams will be back in action with a Week 6 matchup on the road at UBC on Oct. 18. After that, the Rams will conclude their Canada West schedule with home games against Manitoba (Oct. 25) and Alberta (Nov. 1).

Cross Country (Men’s CIS Ranking: No. 10) – Make it three wins in three races for Matt Johnson, who finished in first place on Saturday at the Sled Dog Open in Saskatoon with an 8K time of 25:04. Johnson’s finish helped the Cougars place third in the men’s standings, while the women’s team had top-ten performances from Avery Westberg, Brynn Latimer, and Jesse Van Eaton and placed second in the overall standings. The teams will race next at the Stewart Cup in Calgary on Oct. 25.

(Courtesy Braden Konschuh/Cougar Athletics)