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Providence Sports Round-Up: A Momentous Weekend

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Jim Johnson

Providence University’s women’s basketball team is coming off a momentous weekend that began with back-to-back wins (98–46 and 98–30 respectively) against the Université de Saint-Boniface (USB) Les Rouges.

“It was a great way to end the regular season,” says coach Joel Coursey. “We have struggled scoring the last two weeks and we needed to find our stride before the playoffs. Friday night was a great match from both sides. USB scored a season high and we just missed triple digits, with shooting 72 threes.”

One player, Amver Navarro, had a particularly big night, scoring 20 points.

“Saturday was a special night for our program,” he adds. “The Pilots recognized the careers of Megan Wiebe and Trinity Blair. Both players have contributed greatly to the growth and success of the program.”

The exciting weekend also marked a milestone for Coursey himself. After ten seasons of competition and 11 seasons as head coach, he celebrated his one hundredth career game with the Pilots.

The team has averaged ten wins per season under Coursey’s leadership and in 2019 his team captured the Northern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (NIAC) championship. That same year, Coursey was recognized as Coach of the Year.

The Pilots now enter the Manitoba Colleges Athletic Conference (MCAC) playoffs on Friday where they hope to earn a spot in the finals.

The men’s basketball team also had a winning weekend against Les Rouges. On February 3, they defeated USB 66–60 and the next day they prevailed again with a final score of 79–47.

“Our first game in Winnipeg was very physical, with the local team coming at us rather aggressively, taking us off-guard,” says their head coach, Pierre Dubreuil. “We gave up an early lead to Les Rouges, trying to adjust to the game’s physicality. Entering the second half, still trailing by five, we started taking back the momentum in offence and defence… We clicked better in offence and worked hard to stop our opponent, only giving up 13 points per quarter in the second half. The aggressiveness of our opponent didn’t pay off, picking up two unsportsmanlike fouls late in the fourth, allowing us to ice the game on the free throw line and take six points to win 66–60.”

The second game of the weekend was also the last game of the regular season—and the last home game.

The team took this opportunity to celebrate the career of shooting guard Joshua Armstrong.

“Flowing through Armstrong, we turned great defence into points in transition, running with more energy as the game progressed to finish with a strong 26 points last quarter,” Dubreuil says. “Armstrong finished with 34 points and five assists, adding two wins to our record and allowing us to finish undefeated in the MCAC for the first time in recent history.”

The Pilots ended their MCAC regular season with a perfect 8–0, earning them a bye to the final on February 12.

The women’s volleyball team had a rough match against the Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) Blazers but pulled off a 3–2 win in the end.

“In our final regular season meeting with CMU, we certainly didn’t get out to the start we wanted,” explains head coach Kyle Guenther. “We made error after error, which resulted in us being down two sets to none pretty quickly. After a slight lineup change and a refocus heading into the third set, we were able to switch the momentum to our side. Our passing picked up, but more importantly we started to finish points offensively. We ended up forcing a fifth set and came out on top of a back-and-forth decider. We will need to pick up our game over the next couple of weeks to gain more confidence heading into championship weekend, but it was a great character win to come back like that. It was a much-needed win for the standings as well.”

This weekend the Pilots head to Brandon for a back-to-back meeting with the Assiniboine Community College (ACC) Cougars.

On the men’s volleyball front, Providence lost 2–3 to the CMU Blazers on February 3. Despite the result, the men’s head coach Cody Quiring says that this matchup was an absolute barnburner.

“We had a direct game plan going into the match and it paid dividends early with what was arguably our quickest start out of the gate,” says Quiring. “It was a testament to the level of preparation that the guys bought in and brought in a heavy week of on court sessions. We just unfortunately weren’t as crisp offensively as we’ve been the last few weeks in the fourth and fifth sets. While the result didn’t swing our way when the dust settled, it was another good opportunity to battle toe to toe with the number-ten-ranked team in the nation. On to the next as we’re back in the gym Monday preparing for a doubleheader on the road in Brandon.”

In women’s futsal, the Pilots trounced ACC 14–1 on February 4. Later in the day, though, they fell to USB 1–6.

The team has already clinched a playoff spot but will conclude their regular season with a pair of games in Niverville against the CMU Blazers and the Brandon University (BU) Bobcats.

The men’s futsal team lost to ACC 2–5 on February 4, then fell again, this time 5–6, to USB later in the day.

“Each week we seem to be playing better than the week before,” says coach Mo Cato. “But unfortunately, we just don’t seem to be getting the results. Still, we’re progressing in the right direction and some of our upperclassmen are not only playing well but continue to show their leadership on and off the court.”

One week of regular season remains for the futsal squads and the Pilots’ playoff hopes are on the line. The men must win both games and get a little luck from their opponents if they are to make the postseason.

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