The University of Regina's women's basketball team heads into the Canada West postseason as the No. 10 seed, which will send the Cougars to a conference play-in game on Friday night on the road against No. 7-seeded Victoria.

Though it marks the first meeting of the year between the two teams as Victoria was one of the six Canada West schools the Cougars didn't play during the conference schedule this year, the two teams have a long history of matching up in the postseason. Friday's game will mark the sixth year in the last 10 that Regina and Victoria have met in the playoffs.

GAME INFORMATION
DATE: Friday, Feb. 14
TIME: 6:00 PM (PST)
LOCATION: CARSA Performance Gym (Victoria, B.C.)

LIVE COVERAGE
CanadaWest.tv [link]
Live Stats [link]

COACH TAYLOR ON VICTORIA
"Victoria is great at attacking the hoop, and our focus will have to be on winning the rebounding battle and limiting their transition scores. Ashlyn Day can score in all ways for them and gives opposing teams matchup issues with her length."

KEY PLAYERS
One of three fifth-year players on the Cougars, Michaela Kleisinger has been sensational this season. She led Canada West with 121 assists, which falls just one short of the school record set by Jana Schweitzer during the 2004-05 season. She also led Canada West in minutes played (36.4 per game) while finishing first on the Cougars in scoring (13.0 points per game) and steals (34) and second in rebounds (143). Kleisinger had three triple-doubles during conference play, the first three by a Cougar since the program joined Canada West prior to the 2001-02 season.

Victoria's top scorer is Day, a third-year guard who's effective from short range and the perimeter. She averages 16.4 points per game and also led the Vikes with 37 steals this season while shooting 46% from three-point range. Day is also a good free throw shooter, finishing with a 78% success rate from the stripe in 20 Canada West games. The Vikes were the best free throw shooting team in the conference this season, hitting an impressive 77% as a team.

COUGARS/VIKES IN THE POSTSEASON
The Cougars have won 10 straight playoff games over the Vikes in a streak that dates back to 2011, though only one of those contests (a consolation semifinal at the 2017 U SPORTS Championship) were played at Victoria. Overall, Regina is 11-3 against the Vikes in the postseason and 2-2 in Victoria. Besides that 2017 matchup, the two teams also played a 2003 Canada West quarterfinal series in Victoria which the Vikes took in three games.

THE BRACKET
The new Canada West postseason format sees a revamped format for the quarterfinals and semifinals. The winners of the four play-in games will advance to one of two four-team pods, one hosted by top-seeded Calgary and the other by No. 2 seed Saskatchewan. The four play-in winners are reseeded for the quarterfinal round, which means a Regina win would send the Cougars to the Calgary pod unless there's an upset in either the 5/12 or 6/11 game. A win by the Vikes would likely send them to the Saskatchewan pod, barring upsets in both of the aforementioned play-in games.