(Photo: CIS)

OTTAWA (CIS) – The seeding and match-ups were announced Sunday for the CIS women’s basketball regional qualifying tournaments, which will be hosted next weekend by the University of Ottawa and the University of Saskatchewan.

Ottawa and Saskatchewan had been announced as hosts of the East and West Regionals, respectively, back in December.

The winners of the tournaments will join five teams that have already qualified for the CIS Final Eight set for March 17 to 19 at the University of Calgary. The schools that have clinched a berth include host Calgary, as well as conference champions Acadia (AUS), McGill (RSEQ), Ottawa (OUA) and UBC (Canada West).

Following the Regionals, an eighth and final berth will be awarded to an at-large entry.

Having already booked their ticket for Calgary, the Gee-Gees are in a favourable position heading into the East Regional. Should they win the tournament, the second-place finishers would also earn a trip to the Final Eight.

Ottawa has been seeded No. 1 for its home tourney. The rest of the field includes the No. 2 Windsor Lancers (OUA finalists), No. 3 Cape Breton Capers (AUS finalists) and No. 4 Fraser Valley Cascades (Canada West fourth-place finishers).

Friday’s semifinals will see Windsor and Cape Breton face off at 6 p.m., and Ottawa and Fraser Valley square off at 8 p.m. The final is set for Saturday at 8 p.m.

In the West Regional, it will be winner take all in Saskatoon.

The seeded is as follows: No. 1 Regina Cougars (Canada West finalists), No. 2 Saskatchewan Huskies (Canada West bronze medallists), No. 3 Brock Badgers (OUA bronze medallists) and No. 4 Concordia Stingers (RSEQ finalists).

Friday’s first-round match-ups are Brock vs. host Saskatchewan at 6:15 p.m., and Concordia vs. Regina at 8 p.m. The sudden-death gold-medal game is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Saturday.

SSN Canada will have live webcast of all games from the two Regionals at ssncanada.ca.

REGIONAL TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE (all times local)

EAST REGIONAL at University of Ottawa

Friday, March 9

18:00 Semifinal #1: No. 3 Cape Breton vs. No. 2 Windsor

20:00 Semifinal #2: No. 4 Fraser Valley vs. No. 1 Ottawa

Saturday, March 10

18:00 Final

WEST REGIONAL at University of Saskatchewan

Friday, March 9

18:15 Semifinal #1: No. 3 Brock vs. No. 2 Saskatchewan

20:00 Semifinal #2: No. 4 Concordia vs. No. 1 Regina

Saturday, March 10

19:00 Final

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