Meeting in the playoffs might be routine for these two perennial contenders – Saturday's matchup will be the 10th postseason matchup in the past 10 seasons between Regina and Saskatchewan – but never have the stakes been so high. While they've played in the national tournament three times before, including in last season's third-place game, this will be the first time the two teams have met in the championship bracket. The winner of the game will advance to Sunday's U SPORTS championship game against the winner of the Carleton/McGill semifinal.

AGAINST THE HUSKIES
Saturday's game will be the fifth time the Cougars have matched up against Saskatchewan this year. Regina took a 74-73 non-conference home win in October before the two teams split in Saskatoon the final weekend of the regular season - the Cougars won 74-59 in the first game of the weekend series, but Saskatchewan replied with an 87-82 win the following night. Just last Friday, the Cougars defeated the Huskies 75-55 on home court to win their third Canada West title in program history and improve their record against Saskatchewan to 3-1 this season. Regina is 15-24 in league games and 4-5 in the postseason against the U of S.

IN THE SEMIFINALS
Regina is in the national semifinals for the 12th time in history, having also won quarterfinal games in 1990, 1991, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2013. The Cougars are 6-5 in semifinal games and will be facing a Canada West opponent in this round for the third time since joining the conference prior to the 2001-02 season. Regina defeated Canada West foe Winnipeg in the 2004 semifinals, but lost to Simon Fraser in 2010.

AWARD WINNERS
A year after Kyanna Giles was named the U SPORTS Rookie of the Year, Goncalves received the same honour from the conference after a stellar first season with the Cougars. Giles was also a Canada West first-team all-star and a second-team All-Canadian this year, while Kot was named a conference third-team all-star. Goncalves joins Giles and Andrea (Gottselig) Ward – who's serving as co-chair of the tournament hosting committee this weekend – as the only three players in school history to be named the U SPORTS Rookie of the Year.

FAMILIAR TERRITORY
The Cougars are making their third consecutive U SPORTS Championship appearance, their ninth in 12 seasons under head coach Dave Taylor, their 15th in the past 21 seasons, and their 19th in program history.

NATIONALS AT HOME
The Cougars are hosting the national championship for the third time in the past decade and for the fourth time overall. They also hosted in 1979, 2009, and 2013. The team made it to the title game on home court in 2009 and 2013, but ended up with national silver medals after both of those contests after losing to Simon Fraser and Windsor, respectively.

INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE
The U of R has sent a team to represent Canada in the FIBA 3x3 World University League in Xiamen, China for two consecutive years now. This past October, the squad consisting of Kyanna Giles, Michaela Kleisinger, Charlotte Kot, and Avery Pearce won silver at the event. Sara Hubenig, Kleisinger, Kot, and the now-graduated Katie Polischuk also won silver in Canadian colours in the 2016 event.

MORE INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE
In November, rookie guard Carolina Goncalves briefly left the team to join Portugal's senior national team for a pair of FIBA Women's EuroBasket 2019 qualifying games. Goncalves was with the national team for Portugal's games against Greece (in Almada, Portugal) and against Israel (in Tel Aviv, Israel) before returning to the Cougars in time for the series against UNBC.

PROJECTED STARTERS

Saskatchewan	Regina
#1 Libby Epoch (G • 5-7 • 2nd) #5 Sabine Dukate (G • 5-9 • 3rd) #7 Megan Ahlstrom (G • 5-10 • 3rd) #9 Megan Lindquist (F • 6-0 • 5th) #11 Summer Masikewich (F • 6-2 • 2nd)	#1 Charlotte Kot (F • 6-0 • 5th) #2 Michaela Kleisinger (G • 5-7 • 3rd) #6 Kyia Giles (G • 5-7 • 2nd) #7 Sara Hubenig (G • 5-9 • 5th) #9 Kyanna Giles (G • 5-7 • 2nd)