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For the third time in the past four years, the University of Regina's women's basketball team will play the Victoria Vikes in the Canada West quarterfinals. The best-of-three series will go on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday if a third game is needed.

All games will tip off at 7 p.m. on the U of R campus at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport.

Five of the last eight games between Regina and Victoria have been postseason contests, all of which have been played at the CKHS. The Cougars took swept a quarterfinal series in two straight games in 2011 and then defeated Victoria just two weeks later in the CIS West Region semifinal game under the old playoff format. The teams also met last season, with the Cougars coming away with 70-57 and 68-66 wins to take the quarterfinal series in two straight.

This will be the University of Victoria's second trip to Regina this year, as the Cougars took out the Vikes by an 85-64 margin back in early November in the first weekend of the Canada West schedule.

Both the Cougars and Alberta finished the Canada West schedule with identical 20-2 records, but the Pandas took first place in the Prairie Division based on their superior intra-division record. Alberta and Saskatchewan were the only two teams that the Cougars lost to in conference play, as the U of R finished the season with 16 consecutive Canada West victories.

The Cougars had the most potent offence over the 22-game conference schedule as the only team to average in excess of 80 points per game. Much of their damage was done from the perimeter, but Victoria can also throw daggers from long range as this series features the top two Canada West teams in three-point percentage. The Cougars averaged 35.4% from beyond the three-point arc and Victoria wasn't far behind at 32.7%.

Of the three Canada West players that shot over 40% on the season from three-point range, the Cougars had two of them. Nicole Clarke shot a league-leading 46.2% from downtown while finishing fifth in the conference with an average of 17.6 points per game, while Katie Polischuk was 40.2% from three-point range to finish third in the conference. Jenny Lewis (36.8%) and Shaylyn Crisp (36.4%) finished fourth and fifth in the category for Victoria.

Clarke was one of four Cougars to average in double figures in scoring during the conference schedule. Polischuk was second with 12.4 points per game, while newcomer Janine Guijt averaged 11.4 and Charlotte Kot scored at least 10 points in 11 of the team's last 13 Canada West games and averaged 10.7 points per game for the season. And third-year post Alyssia Kajati wasn't far behind, averaging 9.6 points per contest with her .600 field goal percentage for the season good for third in Canada West.

Victoria (15-7) needed to defeat UBC twice last weekend to avoid hitting the road for the quarterfinals. The Vikes took an 85-73 win over the Thunderbirds on Friday night in Victoria, but lost 79-69 to the Thunderbirds on Saturday to end up in third place in the Pacific Division. Jenna Bugiardini (14.6 ppg) and Jessica Renfrew (12.9) are Victoria's two leading scorers, while Cassandra Goodis, Sarah Semeniuk, and Crisp round out the Vikes' usual starting five.

This weekend's series will be webcast at www.canadawest.tv.

NOTES: Regina has a 13-10 advantage in the all-time series counting conference games only ... the Cougars are 6-3 against Victoria in the postseason and have won five consecutive playoff games over the Vikes ... the teams also met in the 2003 Canada West quarterfinals in Victoria which the Vikes won in three games ... the first postseason game between the two teams was a 73-60 win for Victoria in the semifinals of the 1998 CIS Championship in Thunder Bay, Ont.