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A week after splitting a pair of matches against No. 2-ranked Trinity Western, the schedule gets no easier for the University of Regina's women's volleyball team as the Cougars host top-ranked UBC this Friday and Saturday at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport.

First serve is scheduled for Friday night at 6:00 and on Saturday night at 5:00.

The Cougars are coming off a win and a loss against No. 2-ranked Trinity Western last weekend in Langley, B.C. They played a strong road match in a straight-sets victory over the Spartans on Friday and continued that momentum with a victory in the opening set the following night, but Trinity Western recovered to win the next three sets to salvage the weekend split.

Desiree Ates (pictured) had a fine weekend for the Cougars, collecting 13 kills in Friday's win and matching her career high with 23 kills on Saturday. In her final season of CIS eligibility and her second year with the Cougars, Ates and UBC's Lisa Barclay are the only two Canada West players that are averaging in excess of four kills per set.

Rookie setter Leah Shevkenek ranks fourth in the conference with an average of 9.8 assists per set coming into the weekend and has also chipped in defensively with 64 digs and 13 blocks for the Cougars. Ates, Tori Glynn, and Chelsea Ziolkowski are Shevkenek's options on the outside, while middles Molly Wade-Cummings and Michelle Sweeting are fifth and sixth in Canada West in hitting percentage. In her first year as a starter, Wade-Cummings is hitting .303 for the season while Sweeting is just behind with a .297 percentage and also ranks second on the team with 109 kills.

At the net, Sweeting has a team-leading 33 blocks – seven of the solo variety – while Wade-Cummings isn't far back with 28 blocks on the season. Fifth-year libero Megan Semeniuk leads the Cougars with 109 digs on the year, with Glynn (96) and Ates (85) in close pursuit.

UBC is coming off a pair of three-set sweeps over Calgary last weekend which pushed the Thunderbirds' conference record to an unblemished 10-0. Including its five non-conference matches, UBC has an impressive 14-1 overall record this year, with its only loss coming on Oct. 6 to the Cougars in a five-set non-conference match at the West Coast Classic in Vancouver.

Barclay and Rosie Schlagintweit are UBC's main threats at outside hitter, as Barclay leads the conference in kills and Schlagintweit comes in with an impressive .292 hitting percentage. Fourth-year middle Abbey Keeping ranks sixth in the conference in blocks per set (1.23) and second in hitting percentage (.366), while setter Kirsty Setterlund leads Canada West outright with an average of 10.7 assists per set. Expect UBC to round out its starting lineup with fourth-year hitter Mariah Bruinsma, fifth-year libero Briana Liau Kent, and either Alissa Coulter or Juliana Kaufmanis on the outside.

This weekend marks the final Canada West matches before the December break for both teams. The Cougars will again participate in the non-conference New Year's Classic hosted by the University of Alberta in early January before getting back to the Canada West schedule against the Pandas on Jan. 11 and Jan. 12 in Regina.

Both matches will be available live on canadawest.tv.

NOTES: The Cougars will be looking to defeat a team ranked No. 1 in the CIS for the first time in program history ... the closest the U of R has come to taking out a top-ranked team in recent years was back in January of 2010, when the Cougars pushed then-No. 1 UBC to five sets in Regina.