Two promising and youthful University of Victoria Vikes teams will get a chance to win CIS national titles at home next season.
As hosts of the 2016 CIS women鈥檚 rugby championship next November and the 2017 CIS women鈥檚 basketball championship that March, the Vikes teams will gain automatic berths.
Both bid decisions were announced by the CIS over the weekend.
鈥淲e have a very good, young and talented group, so this is huge for us,鈥� said Vikes women鈥檚 basketball head coach Dani Sinclair.
The Vikes don鈥檛 graduate anybody this season. Current-fourth year UVic stalwarts Jenna Bugiardini, Nicole Karstein, Jenna Krug and Ashley McGinnis will graduate In 2016-17 by playing in the national championship on their home CARSA gym.
鈥淲e can have a bit of a long-term approach,鈥� said Sinclair.
Not that she is treating this season as a build-up to the main event.
鈥淲e鈥檙e still going for it all this season,鈥� said Sinclair, whose Vikes opened the sa国际传媒 West regular season 1-1 against Trinity Western over the weekend in Langley and open at home Friday and Saturday against Saskatchewan.
鈥淭hat weight and pressure of coaching at UVic is always there.鈥�
Sinclair, who played as Dani Everitt, captained UVic to its ninth CIS title in 2003 under head coach Brian Cheng. The Vikes earlier had won eight national championships under the legendary coach Kathy Shields, but have not been to the national tournament since 2005.
UVic has not hosted the nationals since 1993 in the old McKinnon Gym.
鈥淚t鈥檚 time to bring it home again,鈥� said Sinclair.
As assistant coach over the summer with champion sa国际传媒 at the 2015 FIBA Americas U-16 women鈥檚 championship, and assistant coach for sa国际传媒 at the 2011 Pan Am Games, Sinclair knows the Canadian hoops scene and how important national-level success is in recruiting top-level talent to your program.
The University of Regina will host the CIS women鈥檚 hoops nationals in 2018, it was also announced. This season鈥檚 national tournament will be hosted by the University of New Brunswick.
Meanwhile, the UVic women鈥檚 rugby team has long toiled in the long shadow of Doug Tate鈥檚 more vaunted men鈥檚 Vikes team that produced several players for sa国际传媒 at the recent 2015 World Cup.
But the rising women鈥檚 Vikes team took major strides under rookie head coach Brittany Waters as it won the sa国际传媒 West championship this season for the first time in team history to advance to its first CIS tournament appearance in a decade since hosting in 2005. The Vikes finished fifth in the CIS tournament over the weekend in Kingston, Ont., which is the best-ever placing for the program.
鈥淭his is just the beginning for this team. We are very young and return seven or eight starters,鈥� said Waters.
Among the youthful returnees are Canadian U-20 player and CIS rookie of the year Gabrielle Senft and sophomore Jess Neilson, a member of the Maple Leafs national development team.
鈥淭hese [Vikes women鈥檚 basketball and rugby] are two programs on the rise and this times well for us,鈥� said UVic athletic director Clint Hamilton.
CIS SOCCER: Bruce Wilson鈥檚 sa国际传媒 West-runner up UVic Vikes have been seeded No. 7 for the men鈥檚 soccer CIS championship at York University in Toronto and will meet the Atlantic Conference-champion and No. 2-seed UNB Varsity Reds on Thursday in the quarter-finals . . . The UBC Thunderbirds, who edged UVic 2-1 in overtime in the sa国际传媒 West final Saturday night, are seeded No. 4 and will meet the Ontario bronze-medallist Toronto Varsity Blues in the quarters.
