The University of Victoria Vikes will continue their 2015-16 sa国际传媒 West basketball playoff run, playing under the shadows of the monstrosity known as Rogers Place 鈥� the future home of the NHL鈥檚 Oilers 鈥� being constructed in Edmonton.
MacEwan University鈥檚 city centre campus gym, located just west of the newly formed Downtown Arena and Entertainment District, is where coach Dani Sinclair鈥檚 Vikes will face the Griffins in a best-of-three series beginning today at 5 p.m. with a berth to the women鈥檚 sa国际传媒 West Final Four on the line.
鈥淲e saw them in pre-season, they鈥檙e a tough team. They have veteran players, who know the game very well so it will be a tough matchup, for sure,鈥� Vikes fourth-year forward Nicole Karstein said of the Griffins.
Victoria defeated MacEwan 76-70 in pre-season on Nov. 1 at CARSA Performance Gym, but much has changed since then.
The Griffins finished 17-3 (and on an eight-game winning streak) in the Explorer Division, while the Vikes were 9-11 in the Pioneer Division.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e experienced with a number of fifth-year players and they鈥檙e physically tough and aggressive. They鈥檝e had success with both those things and they鈥檒l be a tough matchup for us,鈥� said Sinclair.
The only common opponent the two teams have faced is Thompson Rivers, which gives them a bit of a comparison, but this series will be extremely hard to judge.
鈥淰ery much so,鈥� added Sinclair. 鈥淵ou spend most of the year being able to make some comparable. Tendencies and style of play usually remain the same. It鈥檚 an out-of-conference team that you鈥檙e trying to figure out pretty quickly.鈥�
And Victoria will have to do it on the road.
鈥淔or them, playing at home and getting a week of rest is an added bonus, but we鈥檝e been playing playoff games for the last month and there is something to be said about that, too,鈥� said Sinclair. 鈥淚 have no problem taking this team on the road and seeing what we can do. Sometimes there鈥檚 less pressure playing on the road.鈥�
There was tension at home last weekend as the Vikes pulled out a 2-1 play-in series win over Trinity Western.
鈥淲ith every playoff game we play, we gain more and more experience. We have young players taking on big roles,鈥� said Sinclair. 鈥淚 honestly think having to go three games last weekend isn鈥檛 the worst thing in the world because we learned things in that [third] game that we may not have learned otherwise.鈥�
Such as the importance of defending.
鈥淲e have to make sure we play defence this weekend. That was the key for us last weekend, we played our defence and held them to what we needed to,鈥� said Karstein, who had 20 points to lead the Vikes in the Game 3, 62-44 win over Trinity Western.
鈥淚 think we figured out what we needed to do this past weekend. We鈥檙e coming off a good high on Sunday and we鈥檙e ready to go,鈥� added Karstein, who also had 18 points in the exhibition game against MacEwan, behind Jenna Bugiardini鈥檚 team-high 26.
The new surroundings will be a question mark, however.
鈥淲e鈥檝e never played there and I don鈥檛 think Dani has ever been there before, so we don鈥檛 know what the atmosphere will even be like. Hopefully, with our shoots and practices we can get a feel for the place real quick.鈥�
