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The University of Regina's volleyball teams return to the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport this weekend to host the University of Winnipeg on Friday and Saturday. Match times are 6:00 and 7:30 on both nights, with the women first on Friday and the men first on Saturday.

Women's Preview

The Cougars (1-5) are coming off of a pair of losses to No. 3-ranked Alberta last weekend, as were defeated by the Pandas in straight sets on both Friday and Saturday in Edmonton.

The highlight for the Cougars was the strong play of third-year middle Michelle Sweeting, who led the team in kills (18), hitting percentage (.438), and blocks (7) against a difficult Alberta squad. Sweeting has been one of the most efficient hitters in the conference through the first six matches of the season, as she ranks third in Canada West with a .362 hitting percentage.

Also ranking among the conference leaders is second-year setter Meagan Lane, who is third in Canada West with an average of 9.29 assists per set. Desiree Ates enters the weekend with a team-high 62 kills on the season and is sixth in the conference with an average of 2.95 kills per set.

Besides Ates, Lane, and Sweeting, the U of R's starters include second-year middle Trisha Dobson, second-year outside hitter Tori Glynn, fourth-year libero Megan Semeniuk, and third-year right side Chelsea Ziolkowski. Lindsay Braul and Shelby Hack have both seen action off the bench in all six matches for the Cougars this season.

Winnipeg (0-5) comes into the weekend still searching for its first win of the Canada West schedule. The Wesmen came close to grabbing that first win last weekend at Calgary, but came up short after losing an extended fifth set to the Dinos.

No Canada West team leans on one player offensively as much as Winnipeg relies on Croatian import Ozana Nikolic, as the second-year left side has been credited with over 36% of the Wesmen's total attacks this season. Perhaps not surprisingly, Nikolic ranks second in the conference with an average of 4.15 kills per set and has been solid defensively as well, as she's second on Winnipeg with 68 digs.

Winnipeg's offence is controlled by first-year setter Hope Schneider, who has a U of R connection as she's the younger sister of Cougar men's hockey player Mark Schneider. Schneider has dished out 152 assists this season for an average of 7.6 per set, with Carleen Kruschel and Sarah Lynch acting as secondary targets behind Nikolic. Kruschel leads the team with 78 digs, while Lynch is the team's leader with 20 total blocks.

Friday's match will be the 120th conference meeting between the two ancient Great Plains Athletic Conference rivals. Winnipeg has an 82-37 advantage in the all-time series and won both Canada West matches last season, breaking a string of 10 consecutive wins by the Cougars and the Wesmen over a span that stretched from the 2006-07 season through the 2010-11 campaign.

Men's Preview

The Cougars (0-6) faced the top-ranked team in the CIS last weekend in Edmonton, losing in three sets on both Friday and Saturday to the undefeated University of Alberta.

The U of R's lineup this weekend against Winnipeg will feature a pair of notable additions, as Andrew Nelson and Rhodri Simmonds both played their first matches of the season for the Cougars last weekend against Alberta.

Nelson, the 2011-12 CIS Rookie of the Year, had missed the opening four matches of the schedule while recovering from a lower body injury, while Simmonds was ineligible due to CIS transfer regulations. Nelson collected a team-leading 15 kills in the two matches against Alberta, while Simmons was second on the Cougars with 11 kills.

Besides Nelson and Simmonds, expect sixth-year head coach Greg Barthel to start Steve Carston and Marco Vargas at middle, Matthew Lueck at left side, Caleb Eschbach at setter, and Jacques Borgeaud at libero.

Winnipeg (2-3) opened the season with a three-set loss to Manitoba and have since registered weekend splits at home against Mount Royal and last weekend on the road at Calgary. The Wesmen enter this weekend's series in eighth place in the Canada West standings just shy of the quarter point of the conference schedule.

The Wesmen's top hitter this season has been Tom Douglas-Powell, who leads the team with 68 kills and – along with Ty Loewen and Brendan Black – is one of three Winnipeg players with at least 50 attacks and a hitting percentage over .300. Black has a team-high .349 hitting percentage and also leads Winnipeg with 22 blocks, while Riley Delavau and setter Josh McKay are tied for the team lead with 44 digs.

After this weekend, the U of R's volleyball teams will embark on two consecutive road trips to British Columbia. The Cougars will square off with UBC in Vancouver on Nov. 23 and Nov. 24 before finishing the first half of the schedule against Thompson Rivers on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 in Kamloops.