Live WebcastThe University of Regina's women's volleyball team returns to action this weekend with its third and fourth consecutive road matches to start the Canada West schedule, as the Cougars will face Mount Royal on Friday and Saturday night.
The women's match (
canadawest.tv) will follow the men's match both nights, with start time set for 8 p.m. on Friday and 7 p.m. on Saturday.
The Cougars were given a tough assignment last weekend to start Canada West play, as they squared off with No. 1-ranked UBC Okanagan. The Heat were victorious in three straight sets on both nights, though the Cougars showed definite improvement from Friday to Saturday as head coach
Melanie Sanford moved to a bigger lineup.
After Friday's setback, Sanford's lineup shuffling involved moving
Jenna Krahn and
Kyla Payette out of the starting lineup and putting in first-year players
Dominika Janowczyk and
Diana Lumbala. Though the Cougars were again defeated in three on Saturday, they were definitely more competitive against a strong Heat squad and lost by scores of 25-21, 25-19, and 25-21.
Tori Glynn,
Ashlee Sandiford,
Satomi Togawa,
Molly Wade-Cummings, and
Taylor Ungar all started both of last weekend's matches for the Cougars, with
Haley Wagar and
Kristine Ward each appearing in four of six sets off the bench.
Mount Royal (0-2) also started off the conference schedule with a pair of losses last weekend, dropping a pair of four-set decisions to a MacEwan team that's just outside of this week's CIS Top Ten. MRU did some lineup shuffling of its own against MacEwan as Taylor Pelland, Alex Runge, and Jenna Smith were the only players to play in all eight sets. Pelland had a team-high 20 kills last weekend, while Smith dished out 74 assists and Runge led the way with 23 digs.
After this weekend, the Cougars will prepare for two home matches against UBC on Oct. 30 and Oct. 31.
NOTES: Tori Glynn has 583 career kills and now needs just five more to surpass Desiree Ates for seventh place on the U of R's all-time list ... Glynn also needs only three more service aces to overtake Meagan Onstad for sixth on the school's career list ... the all-time series between the two teams since Mount Royal joined the CIS in 2012 is dead even at three wins apiece ... the Cougars swept Mount Royal last year and have won three of their last four matches against the former ACAC school.
