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Vikes women set to host national championship

Women's national basketball championships will be at the University of Victoria March 9-12
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Luanne Krawetz (Hebb)

In less than a month, the University of Victoria Vikes women’s basketball team will host seven teams from across Canada to compete for the national championship March 9-12.

While the tournament bracket remains empty, university officials, current and former players are all gearing up for what they say will be an exciting event.

“I’m excited,” said Luanne Krawetz (Hebb). “I can’t wait for it to start. We have been working on this for a while and I’m really, really, really excited to get it on, get the teams here, to feel that competitiveness that we all have.”

Krawetz, mind you, played for the Vikes in the late 1970s, early 1980s. So if Krawetz, who is part of the alumni committee helping organize tournament-related parties and ceremonies, sounds pumped up, what about the players?

For team captain Jenna Bugiardini and her teammates, the upcoming tournament is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. “For us, this is an opportunity to play in a national [championship],” she said. “It is honestly something that I have dreamt of coming here.”

Her excitement is understandable. Victoria has hosted the national tournament only once.

The year was 1993 and the Vikes were still playing out of McKinnon Gymnasium.

Much has changed during the following years. Since 2015, the Vikes have been playing out of the Centre for Athletics, Recreation and Special Abilities, an ultra-modern, multi-purpose facility that can seat more than 2,000.

The Vikes also added two more championship banners since 1993 to bring their total number of titles to eight to become the most successful program in Canadian university women’s basketball since 1972.

But this legacy coupled with the inevitable expectations of playing on home court could also create excessive pressure to perform, especially in light of the fact that host teams generally do not win the title. Since 1972, only two tournaments concluded with the host team winning the championship. Notably, Windsor pulled off that feat twice, winning on home court in 2014 and 2011.

While Bugiardini cannot speak about why host teams have historically struggled, the Vikes are welcoming the opportunity, adding they have geared all their efforts towards the tournament.

“We want to show that we deserve to be here and we want to bring a national championship home,” she said.

To that end, Bugiardini will try to exploit every advantage, including home court.

“We don’t see it [playing at home] as a pressure,” she said. “We see it as a motivation.”

The tournament itself follows a bracket system that seeds teams one through eight. Teams that win their first game move on to play for first and third place, while the losing teams play for spots five through eight.

As the host, the Vikes have already qualified. This said, the remainder of their Canada West season will help determine their seeding and ultimately their chances of winning the national title.

While the Vikes currently do not rank among the top 10 teams in Canada, the field is “pretty wide open” and anything can happen at a national championship, said Bugiardini.

“What we have is a really great group of girls,” she said.

Things are also picking up off the court.

“This championship is a great opportunity for UVIC, and I would say for the region,” said UVic athletics director Clint Hamilton.

The upcoming tournament marks the second time in less than a year that the university will host a national championship. Last November, UVic hosted the CIS Women’s Rugby Championship. “It has been an important year,” said Hamilton. “One of the reasons we bid to host two women’s championships and have them here was an opportunity to talk about the legacy of excellence that is women’s sports at UVIC.”

He made those comments as the university launched the sale of tournament passes. They are available at govikesgo.com/nationals and come with a 25 per cent discount if purchased before Feb. 15 as part of the Vikes Nation Fan Pack promotion, which also includes a noise-maker, face paint and a Vikes Nation T-shirt for a limited time. Single session ticket sales will open on March 1.

Depending on location, tournament passes range from $75 to $45 per adult. Tournament passes for seniors, students and alumni cost $35. Tournament passes for children cost $25. Family tournament passes (two adults / two children) cost $90.

“The feedback that we are getting is that we have made these passes very affordable and we priced them in a way that price will not be a barrier in participating,” said Hamilton. “So we bring great value. We know the quality of play will be high and the value will be very high.”

 



Wolf Depner

About the Author: Wolf Depner

I joined the national team with Black Press Media in 2023 from the Peninsula News Review, where I had reported on Vancouver Island's Saanich Peninsula since 2019.
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