The University of Regina's women's volleyball team starts the Canada West schedule at home this weekend. The Cougars will play host to the Calgary Dinos on Friday and Saturday on campus at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport.

MATCH TIMES
Friday, Oct. 20 - 6:00 PM
Saturday, Oct. 21 - 7:00 PM
 
WHERE TO WATCH
Webcast ($)
Live Stats (Friday)
Live Stats (Saturday)

WEEKEND PREVIEW
The biggest stories for the Cougars as they head into conference play are a pair of people returning to the program. Melanie Sanford comes back for her 15th year as the team's head coach, while setter Satomi Togawa is back after successfully rehabilitating an injury sustained back in October of 2015.

The Cougars lose the services of graduated fifth-year players Jenna Krahn and Molly Wade-Cummings, who both played major roles for the team during their U SPORTS careers. Wade-Cummings was a four-year starter at middle blocker and finished her career third in school history with 280 blocks, while Krahn started her last three seasons at outside hitter and was second on the team in both kills and digs last year.

But ready to step up is a long list of players that took big steps last season, most notably Diana Lumbala and Taylor Ungar. After playing in less than half of the team's sets as a first-year player in 2015-16, Lumbala emerged as an offensive force in the second half last year. After the break, Lumbala averaged in excess of three kills per set while hitting an impressive .237 in those 14 matches. Ungar, now entering her fourth season with the program, piled up 293 digs as she came perilously close to Kelly Cowan's school record of 295 that has stood since the 2006-07 season.

In Togawa's absence last year, the Cougars split setting duties between rookies Kirstin Greve and Elizabeth Tooth. Greve ended up with slightly more playing time, finishing the year with 365 assists and firing 17 service aces to wind up second on the team in the category. Togawa, who spent last season as an assistant coach with the team while recovering from her injury, was the team's primary setter in 2015 before suffering the injury.

The Cougars have three other players in their fourth year of eligibility besides Ungar – outside hitters Ashlee Sandiford and Leah Sywanyk and middle Kathleen (Bruce) Ens. Lumbala and Haley Wagar are the team's two third-year players, while Greve, Togawa, Tooth, Jordin Gudmundson, Emma Matheson, Rebecca Wood, and UBC Okanagan transfer Brooklyn Reynolds are all in their second year of U SPORTS eligibility.

Sanford's recruiting class includes four players besides Reynolds, who played in six Canada West matches for the Heat last season. Three of those players come from local powerhouse Campbell Collegiate – setter Claire Douglas, outside hitter Jessica Lerminiaux, and libero Sierra Parris-Kruger. Outside hitter Brittany Rousseaux calls tiny Wymark, Sask. home and comes to the Cougars after leading Swift Current Comprehensive to a provincial championship last fall.

NON-CONFERENCE NOTES
The Cougars went 5-7 against U SPORTS opposition in 12 non-conference matches, finishing in fourth place at their own tournament three weekends ago and in fifth place at the Unruh Realty Invitational in Winnipeg. Calgary dropped its first match of the year to defending U SPORTS champion UBC, but then won five in a row including a rematch against the Thunderbirds to finish preseason with an impressive 5-1 record.