The Laurentian Lady Vees basketball is heading to Kamloops, B.C. to play in Thompson Rivers University's BDO Dunwoody Invitational. Friday, October 3 the Lady Vees will take on defending CIS national champions, the UBC Thunderbirds at 5 p.m.
Laurentian will take on the host WolfPack at 7 p.m. on Saturday, October 4th. Laurentian will finish their western road swing at 12 p.m. on Sunday, October 5 when they take on the University of Alberta Pandas. All game times local.
The UBC Thunderbirds are defending national champions and have been the toast of the country in three of the last five years. Despite losing their star player to graduation the Thunderbirds are still a strong team and very deep.
Two Thunderbirds the Laurentian women must pay attention to are Leanne Evans (Port Moody, B.C.), a fourth year post player, and Devan Lisson (Fredericton, N.B.), the third year guard. The Lady Vees will be able to see how they stack up against the class of the country when they take to the court with UBC.
The host Thompson Rivers WolfPack are an up and coming team; despite their 1-22 record a year ago the WolfPack are much improved and with Scott Reeves as head coach they are headed in the right direction.
TRU started early preparations for the season and going into this weekend are in the same boat as the Lady Vees, having not played a competitive game yet.
The WolfPack are a dangerous squad on their home court and with a strong recruiting class have potential to be competitive. Fifth year guard Sarah Cameron (Langley, B.C.) will be an excellent match up for Laurentian's standout point guard Katie Goggins (Hanmer, Ont.)
Finishing up the tournament with the Alberta Pandas will be no walk in the park for the Lady Vees. Alberta is a top tier team in the nation, and finished last season a top the Canada West Central division with a 17-5 record.
They start the new campaign with great depth and experience. The Pandas were silver medalists at the CIS national championships two years ago, losing to Simon Fraser University in the finals.
Goggins will again have a tough match up as she will go toe to toe with fifth year Panda floor General Ashley Wigg (Calgary), while Laurentian's Darrah Bumstead (New Hamburg, Ont.) will find herself in a battle in the post with fifth year Kristin Jarock (Edmonton).
"We are looking forward to seeing where we are at, and playing top competition will be good for us," said head coach Mike Clarke in a release.
The Lady Vees head to British Columbia for their trio of games against Canada West competitors starting Friday at 5 p.m. where they play defending national champions, the UBC Thunderbirds.
Saturday's match up will be the TRU WolfPack at 7 p.m., while Sunday the Lady Vees match up against the Alberta Panadas at 12 p.m. (all times Pacific). To follow the Lady Vees on the western road trip tune to www.luvoyaguers.com .
