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The Winnipeg Wesmen will go in to the U Sports national championship tournament late this week as the No. 3 seed in the country.
U Sports released the seedings for the eight-team women's basketball nationals Sunday and the Wesmen, silver-medalists in the Canada West, were slotted third behind OUA champion Ryerson and Canada West champion, Saskatchewan.
The Wesmen will take on the RSEQ champion Laval Rouge et Or in a first-round game Thursday (4:30 p.m. CT) in Kingston, Ont.
The Rouge et Or finished in third place in the Quebec conference with a 7-5 record in the regular season. But Laval advanced to nationals by claiming the RSEQ's only guaranteed bid with a semifinal win over second-place Bishop's followed by a championship victory Saturday over Quebec-Montreal, which had upset first-place Concordia in the other semifinal.
The Wesmen are 8-1 all time against Laval and the teams last met in a pre-season tournament at UNB Oct. 6, 2019 with the Wesmen pulling out a 69-64 victory in the tournament final.
The Wesmen have won the last five meetings between the programs dating back to the 1995-96 season. That year, the Wesmen were defeated by the Rouge et Or in an October tournament at Laval and then defeated them at the Wesmen Classic in December.
The OUA runners-up Brock Badgers are the fourth-seeded team with AUS champion Acadia Axewomen, host Queen's Gaels and UPEI Panthers rounding out the rest of the field. The Panthers, who were upset by Cape Breton in an AUS semifinal, got the lone-at large berth.
FINAL SEEDING
- Ryerson Rams
- Saskatchewan Huskies
- Winnipeg Wesmen
- Brock Badgers
- Acadia Axewomen
- Laval Rouge et Or
- Queen's Gaels
- UPEI Panthers
SCHEDULE (all times CT)
Thursday Games
- Quarter-final #1: 1-Ryerson vs 8-UPEI, Noon
- Quarter-final #2: 4-Brock vs 5-Acadia, 2 p.m.
- Quarter-final #3: 3-Winnipeg vs 6-Laval, 4:30 p.m.
- Quarter-final #4: 2-Saskatchewan vs 7-Queen's, 7 p.m.
Friday Games
- Consolation semifinal #1, 5 p.m.
- Consolation semifinal #2, 7 p.m.
Saturday Games
- Semifinal #1, 2 p.m.
- Semifinal #2, 5 p.m.
Sunday Games
- Consolation final, 11 a.m.
- Bronze-medal game, 2 p.m.
- Championship game, 5 p.m.