Top women’s university basketball teams battle for national title at UVic
Host Vikes face top-ranked Carleton in last of four quarter-final games today
The name Carleton Ravens needs little introduction to Canadian basketball fans. But that’s the dynastic men’s version. Now, the women look to stake their claim, as the top-ranked Ravens meet the host University of Victoria Vikes in the last quarter-final tonight at 8 of the U Sports national championship taking place in CARSA gym.
“We see all the [Ravens] men’s banners hanging in the gym . . . we want our own banners,” said Carleton post-player Heather Lindsay, named U Sports female athlete of the week, for her two double-doubles in leading the Ravens to their first-ever Ontario championship last weekend.
The male hoops Ravens have won six consecutive national titles and 12 in the last 14 years to crush into the hardwood the seven consecutive championships in the 1980s and eight total won by UVic. The women’s Ravens, meanwhile, have never won a game in the national championships in two previous appearances. But now they enter as the team to beat.
And if the eighth-seed Vikes think the home crowd tonight might tip the balance in their favour, they may have another thing coming. Carleton, which is from Ottawa, beat host Queen’s 49-41 in the Ontario final last weekend before nearly 2,000 Gaels fans in Kingston.
“We got energized, as well, and used the opposition crowd to our benefit,” said Lindsay.
“It was hostile and hectic in that gym but we sent those [Gaels] fans home disappointed,” added Ravens coach Taffe Charles, the all-time third-leading scorer in Carleton men’s hoops history, and now in his 10th season of coaching the women’s Ravens.
“We want to do that again [tonight on Ken and Kathy Shields Court].”
The Vikes, however, envision the night turning out differently.
“It is going to be an electric atmosphere and we hope to play off that,” said UVic’s star fifthyear forward Jenna Bugiardini.
“[The Ravens] are a big team that packs the paint, so the rebounding battle is going to be critical.”
Carleton has won 20 consecutive games, while UVic is in only as host after being eliminated in the Canada West quarter-finals. The Vikes were a combined 15-10 in the conference regular season and playoffs.
“We feel we belong and we have a bit of a chip on our shoulders,” said Vikes coach Dani Sinclair.
“We believe in ourselves and we want to show that to the rest of the country.”
UVic third-year shooting guard Amira Giannattasio played on rep teams in Hamilton, Ont., with three of the Ravens players under coach Richard Nurse, whose daughter Kia Nurse, came out of that group to become an NCAA star and Olympian last year in Rio. The senior Bugiardini is also from Hamilton.
“Hamilton has turned into a hotbed,” said Giannattasio.
Tonight the five Hamiltonians meet on Giannattasio’s and Bugiardini’s adopted CARSA home court. But there will be no pleasantries between the Hamilton homeys, at least not until after the Vikes-Ravens national quarter-final.
“The crowd support is going to be huge for us and it’s important for us to put on a good show,” Giannattasio said.
There are three Canada West teams in the tournament and they are the only ones of the eight competing from across the country to have won the Canadian championship. UVic has done it a record nine times, eight times under coach Kathy Shields, including the last time in 2003 when Sinclair was a Vikes player.
Canadian Rio Olympic team head coach Lisa Thomaidis guided Saskatchewan to its first women’s national basketball title last year, so Thomaidis’ Huskies come into CARSA today as the defending champions and a team to be watched. The Regina Cougars were the champions in 2001.
The action begins at noon today when Ontario runner-up and nationally third-ranked Queen’s opens the U Sports tournament against the Atlantic-champion and sixth-seed Cape Breton Capers. The Canada West champion Huskies are the second seed and play the seventh-seed wild-card entry Laval Rouge et Or in the 2 p.m. quarter-final. The Quebec champion McGill Martlets, ranked fourth, meet Canada West runner-up and wildcard fifth-seed Regina at 6 p.m.
The consolation side plays Friday. The semifinals are Saturday at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. The bronze-medal game is Sunday at 10 a.m. and the championship game at 1 p.m. The semifinals and final are nationally broadcast on Sportsnet 360.