With a 32-3 record, the team enters this weekend’s Canadian Interuniversity Sport Final 8 championships ranked second in the country.
Their first game is a quarterfinal on March 18 at 3 p.m. EST against the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks.
The Huskies did not play Laurier this season and the two teams come into the game relatively unfamiliar with each other.
“I’m not sure we’ve ever played Laurier,” said Huskies’ assistant coach Jacquie Lavallee.
“If we have, it was a long time ago with two different rosters,” added assistant coach Ali Fairbrother.
The two coaches were watching game-tape from previous Laurier games in Toronto’s Lester B. Pearson airport on Wednesday.
“We match up well against them,” said Lavallee. “But they play a different style than we do: they have two big players inside the perimeter who look for each other quite a bit. And they’re not just big huge girls, they can step out and shoot. That’s the one thing we’ll have to look out for.”
She said that the Huskies’ guards will be their team’s strength.
“Our guards will match up with their perimeter players, for sure.”
The Huskies come into the game having two-weeks off after winning the Canada West championships March 5. Lavalle says this break hasn’t necessarily been beneficial.
“Sometimes it’s nice to play every weekend because you are still in your routine,” she said. “It’s a challenge to stay focused.”
“I can’t say that our last week of practices have been our best week of practices,” added Fairbrother.
Still, the coaches are confident that a lack of focus will not be the Huskies’ downfall.
“There is no way they are going to come into that game overconfident. They’ve been there before, they know what to expect,” said Lavallee.
This year’s team has a key group of seniors that give the Huskies an experienced leadership core.
Starters Kim Tulloch, Jill Humbert, Jana Spindler and Marci Kiselyk, along with Lauren Whyte who comes off the bench, have all been with the team for five years. Tulloch was named Canada West most valuable player this year and Humbert was the conference’s nominee for the Sylvia Sweeney award — given to the player who best represents the value of athletics, academics and community involvement.
“It’s pretty unheard of to have five kids come in at the same time and stick with the program for the whole five years,” said Lavallee. “You can see how bonded they are and how much that contributes to the team cohesiveness.”
This will be the seniors’ last week competing in the CIS.
“They know it’s the end of the road and they are definitely taking it very seriously,” said Lavallee. “This is their last opportunity to go for it all.”
This year’s addition of fourth-year CIS veteran Katie Miyazaki from Simon Fraser University will also help keep the Huskies focused over the weekend.
“I think Miyazaki’s contributions have been huge,” said Fairbrother. “She’s a strong leader and I think she is the one player on the team that everyone will listen to and respect.”
SFU moved from CIS competition to NCAA competition this year and left behind a legacy that included winning the last two Bronze Baby trophies — the trophy given to the national champions.
Fairbrother said that, coming from SFU, Miyazaki brings a lot of success to the Huskies program.
Miyazaki was voted the top CIS defensive player in 2009-10 and the top Canada West defensive player this year.