Playoffs aplenty in Cougar country

It’s playoff time in Cougar country, with eight teams enjoying play in the post-season, here’s a look at how things are shaping up.

Women’s Volleyball – CCAA Championships
Capturing their first Alberta College Athletic Conference (ACAC) championship in three seasons was no easy feat for the Cougars women’s volleyball team.
Alberta champions
Mount Royal's women's volleyball team are on their way to the national championships.

Despite playing host and entering the tournament as the number one seed, the Cougars were up against seven of the province’s best teams – including the number two ranked Grand Prairie (GP) Wolves who had handed the Cougars’ their only loss of the regular season.

Dispatching the NAIT Ooks in the quarter-finals and Red Deer Queens in the semi-finals, the Cougars would moved on to face their nemisis in one of the most exciting matches of the weekend. The Cougars were able to pull out the victory in the back and forth affair, winning 15-6 in the fifth set and capturing the match 3-2.

“It just feels so great,” said fifth-year student-athlete Diyon Van Nistelrooy. “We had a tough go last year and just to come back from that beat GP who beat us in the regular season is amazing.”

The ACAC champion Cougars will now travel to Saint John New Brunswick for the 2011 Canadian Colleges Athletic Association (CCAA) Women’s National Volleyball Championships March 10-12.

Women’s Basketball – ACAC Final Four
After beating the Concordia Thunder in dramatic fashion in their best-of-three-game quarter-final series, the Cougar women’s basketball team is set to move onto the ACAC Final Four Championship and take on the North division’s top team, the Grant MacEwan Griffins.

The Cougars beat the Thunder in back to back games to win the best-of-three series, and they will need to be even better against a Griffins team that finished 17-3 in the regular season.

Inconsistent perimeter shooting has hurt the Cougars at times.
Star forward Jamie Morck was spectacular in a Game 1 loss against the Thunder, but saw her shooting percentage dip in the next two games as she began to see more intense defensive coverage from the opposition.

The Cougars will need to find ways of getting the ball in her hands in order to open up the outside shot again in order to be successful against Grant MacEwan.

All games will take place at the SAIT Campus Centre.

Men’s Basketball – ACAC Final Four
We’re down to the final four in the ACAC Men’s Basketball Championships, which take place at NAIT beginning, March 4.

The Mount Royal Cougars will take on the host Ooks in the opening semi-final matchup. The Cougars are coming off a 2-1 series win against the Grant MacEwan Griffins, but will face a much tougher test in the Ooks, who went 18-2 in the regular season.

Cam Dodd leads the Cougars in playoff scoring, and the Cougars will depend on his up-tempo style of play from the point guard position to help set the pace against the top-seeded Ooks.

The Cougars will need a bigger contribution from fifth-year player Jordan Hone in this series if they hope to advance to the finals. Hone rejoined the Cougars in December after missing the first half of the season due to technicality, and average a solid (9 points per game) in the playoffs, though still below his season average of (14 points per game).

Men’s Hockey – Best of five game semi-final series
After a weekend of wild weather that closed highways and left some teams stranded, the Cougars men and women are set to resume hockey playoff action, albeit on a slightly different schedule.

The Cougar men have yet to play a game in their first round series against the Augustana Vikings, but game one will finally be played on, March 4 at 7:30 p.m. on the Cougars’ home ice at the newly renovated Calgary Flames Community Arena.

The two teams played each other four times in the regular season, with the Cougars getting the better of the Vikings, taking the season series with a record of 2-1-0-1.

The Vikings finished six points behind the Cougars in the regular season, prompting the matchup between the second and third seeded teams. The Cougars are coming off a first round bye, while the Vikings needed just two games to dispatch of the Portage Voyageurs in their best-of-three quarterfinal series.

Women’s Hockey – Best of five game semi-final series
On the women’s side, the Cougars were able to squeeze one of their two scheduled weekend games, winning 3-1 over the MacEwan Griffins in a game completely controlled by the hometown Cougars.

The Cougars came back even stronger in game two on Wednesday night, jumping out to a commanding 2-0 series lead on the back of 3-0 shutout performance.
The Griffins had been a thorn in the Cougars’ side all season up until the past two games. Despite owning a league-best 21-1-0-2 record in the regular season, the Cougars’ solitary loss and both ties had come at the hands of the women out of MacEwan University College.

The Cougars’ roster boasts three of the top four scorers in the conference. Captain Chrissy Hodgson led the ACAC with 33 points, while Chelsey Morrill (28 pts) and Taralynn Suzuki (22 pts.) were the third and fourth leading scorers.

The Cougars also have a two-headed monster between the pipes, as Leanne Pfliger and Kendall Kilgour are both in the top three in goals against and save percentage.

Badminton – CCAA Nationals
While the Cougars ACAC badminton season is finished; with the team placing third amongst the four teams overall, a pair of Cougar student-athletes will be headed to the CCAA Badminton Championships in Sackville, New Brunswick March 3 to 5. The Cougars’ Matt Chan and Greg Buckely will be representing MRU at Mount Allison University – where they’ll compete in men’s doubles competition.

The pair finished second at the ACAC championships and will face each of the other five men’s doubles teams in round robin play, with the top four moving onto the semi-finals and finals.

Futsal- ACAC Championship
Carrying over the soccer season indoors, the second ever men’s and women’s Futsal Championships (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futsal) will take place at Lakeland College March 4 to 6. Both the men’s and women’s Cougars’ futsal teams will head into their respective tournaments as the number one seed – after each team won the season’s first two tournaments.

For those of you unfamiliar with futsal, it is similar to indoor soccer, only walls or boards are not used. The fustal ball has less bounce than your regular soccer ball and unlike traditional soccer, you are able to substitute on the fly, adding an intriguing element to a fast-paced game that emphasis ball control and passing in a smaller space.

Game action gets underway on March 4 at 4:00 p.m. for the men and 5:30 p.m. for the women – with the bronze and gold medal games taking place on March 6.

Best of luck to all our teams and student-athletes as they go for gold on the indoor pitch, rink and court. Come check out the Cougars’ hockey action at Flames Community Arenas or head up to SAIT to watch our women compete in the ACAC final four.