One week after defeating Fraser Valley in a Canada West play-in series, the University of Regina's women's basketball team heads right back to the West Coast this weekend for a quarterfinal series against the No. 2-ranked UBC Thunderbirds.

The Cougars never trailed last weekend in their best-of-three series against UFV in Abbotsford, B.C., winning 74-56 on Friday and following that up with an 80-65 victory on Saturday. All five U of R starters scored at least 20 points over the two games, including Katie Polischuk leading the way in both points (32) and rebounds (19) while going 7-for-15 from three-point range.

The two teams saw each other not too long ago, as UBC took 77-48 and 66-52 wins over the Cougars in Regina on Feb. 6 and Feb. 7. UBC finished in first place in the Pioneer Division with a 17-3 record and had a bye through last weekend's first round of the playoffs, while the Cougars were sixth in the division with a 12-8 conference mark.

Besides Polischuk, the starting five for the Cougars will almost certainly include Jennilea Coppola, Kehlsie Crone, Alyssia Kajati, and freshly minted Canada West third-team all-star Charlotte Kot. Leading the charge off the bench will be Christina McCusker, who was named to the Canada West All-Rookie Team this week and essentially received starter's minutes in the Fraser Valley series with Kajati in foul trouble for much of the weekend. The U of R also relied heavily on contributions from guards Sara Hubenig and Caitlin Zacharias against the Cascades.

UBC comes into the weekend riding a 12-game winning streak, with the Thunderbirds' last setback coming in a home loss to Saskatchewan back on Nov. 29. Fifth-year veteran Kris Young was named the Canada West Player of the Year this week for the second time in her career, while post Harleen Sidhu earned second-team all-conference honours.

Young and Sidhu are UBC's leading scorers, as Young finished fourth in Canada West with an average of 18.0 points per game during the conference schedule and Sidhu checked in with 13.2 points per contest. They're also the team's leading rebounders, with Sidhu's 137 on the season just edging Young's 135. As the Cougars learned earlier this month, Adrienne Parkin can be a solid source of secondary scoring for the Thunderbirds as well – Parkin is averaging just over 10 points per game this year, but was a perfect 8-for-8 from the field in the first half against the Cougars on her way to a 23-point effort in UBC's win over the U of R back on Feb. 6.

NOTES: Regina and UBC have met six times in the postseason, with UBC winning four of those meetings ... the Cougars defeated UBC in the 2004 Canada West championship game and in the 2005 Canada West semifinals, but UBC returned the favour in the 2004 and 2008 CIS championship games and the 2008 and 2012 Canada West title games.

Series Schedule
Game 1 – Friday, Feb. 27 (6 p.m. PST)
Game 2 – Saturday, Feb. 28 (5 p.m. PST)
Game 3 (if necessary) – Sunday, Feb. 29 (2 p.m. PST)