The University of Regina's women's basketball team enters this weekend's 2012 CIS Championship as the tournament's No. 1 seed as the Cougars search for their second national title in program history.

The Cougars will start out with a quarterfinal game against the host Calgary Dinos on Saturday night beginning at 7 p.m. If the U of R wins, they'll meet either Acadia or Windsor on Sunday night in the semifinals, with the winner of that contest earning a berth to Monday's national championship game.

Access7 will air the semifinals and the final live, while all games will be available via live webcast at www.ssncanada.ca.

2012 CIS Championship Schedule
Saturday, 12:00 (QF #1)  – #2 UBC vs. #7 McGill (www.ssncanada.ca)
Saturday, 2:00 (QF #2) – #3 Ottawa vs. #6 Saskatchewan (www.ssncanada.ca)
Saturday, 5:00 (QF #3) – #4 Windsor vs. #5 Acadia (www.ssncanada.ca)
Saturday, 7:00 (QF #4) – #1 Regina vs. #8 Calgary (www.ssncanada.ca)
Sunday, 12:00 (CS #1) – Loser QF #1 vs. Loser QF #2 (www.ssncanada.ca)
Sunday, 2:00 (CS #2) – Loser QF #3 vs. Loser QF #4 (www.ssncanada.ca)
Sunday, 5:00 (SF #1) – Winner QF #1 vs. Winner QF #2 (Access7 / www.ssncanada.ca)
Sunday, 7:00 (SF #2) – Winner QF #3 vs. Winner QF #4 (Access7 / www.ssncanada.ca)
Monday, 1:00 (5th place) – Winner CS #1 vs. Winner CS #2 (www.ssncanada.ca)
Monday, 3:00 (3rd place) – Loser SF #1 vs. Loser SF #2 (www.ssncanada.ca)
Monday, 7:00 (Final) – Winner SF #1 vs. Winner SF #2 (Access7 / www.ssncanada.ca)

Cougars Season Overview
It's been a historic season for the University of Regina's women's basketball team and the Cougars will be looking to cap it off in grand style this weekend at the 2012 CIS Championship in Calgary.

The Cougars have gone through the 2011-12 campaign with an incredible 35-2 overall record. They avenged one of those two hiccups (a non-conference loss to Brock in October) with a victory over the Badgers last weekend in the final of the CIS West Regional in Saskatoon – a win which also earned the U of R an automatic trip to this weekend's nationals.

And the Cougars may get a chance at revenge from their only other loss of the season, a home setback to UBC two weekends ago in the Canada West championship game. The No. 1-seeded Cougars might just have a date with the Thunderbirds – who come into the tournament as the No. 2 seed – when Monday's games roll around.

But in between those two losses, the Cougars put together a magical run which saw them register the first undefeated conference season in U of R history. The team recovered after the Brock loss with victories in their final three non-conference games, went through the Canada West gauntlet with a perfect 20-0 record, swept Winnipeg in the Canada West quarterfinals, and defeated Fraser Valley in the conference semifinals before finally falling to UBC in the Canada West title game.

All told, the Cougars won 26 consecutive games while putting together just the 12th undefeated season by a Canada West team. They boasted one of the most potent offences in the history of Canada West basketball, as their average of  84.2 points per game was eclipsed only by the 1988-89 and 1989-90 versions of the Calgary Dinos.

At the helm of the U of R offence is guard Joanna Zalesiak, who has racked up first-team All-Canadian, Canada West MVP, and conference first-team all-star honours this season. Zalesiak led the entire CIS with 117 assists during conference play, finished fourth in Canada West with 55 steals, and finished second on the Cougars in both points (12.8) and rebounds (6.8) per game.

Fourth-year forward Lindsay Ledingham represented Canada twice in 2011 – first at the Summer Universiade in China and again at the Pan-American Games in Mexico – and parlayed those experiences into her second consecutive campaign with Canada West second-team all-star honours. Ledingham averaged 12.5 points and a team-high 7.7 rebounds per game while registering double-doubles in six of the team's 20 Canada West games.

And though she didn't receive any postseason awards, Michelle Clark led the Cougars in scoring in her first season at the U of R after transferring from Purdue University. Clark averaged 15.0 points per game and set a University of Regina record with 57 three-pointers made during the conference schedule. She also was second on the team in assists and third in steals.

The Cougars have rolled with the same starting five for 29 games in a row entering this weekend's tournament, including Zalesiak, Ledingham, Clark, Brittany Read, and Danielle Schmidt. Schmidt is one of four Cougars to have averaged double figures in scoring (10.3 points per game) during the conference schedule, while Read starts down low but shares the post duties with rookie Alyssia Kajati and second-year player Jennilea Coppola.

Fifth-year co-captain Carly Graham essentially receives starter's minutes off the bench for the Cougars, as the shooting guard averaged 8.6 points per game during Canada West play and led the team with a .430 percentage from three-point land.

Megan Chamberlin averages 14.2 minutes per game for the Cougars, while both Coppola – the team's leader in blocked shots – and Kajati have seen their floor time steadily increase as the season has progressed.

Rookie guard Madi Docherty averaged exactly 10 minutes per contest in her first season of eligibility and appeared in 17 of the team's 20 conference games, while second-year players Taylor Pelletier and Kayla Hannah also average in excess of five minutes of playing time per game.