Friday, Feb. 1: Cascades (10-8, T-7th in Canada West) vs. Trinity Western Spartans (10-8, T-7th in Canada West), 6 p.m., Envision Financial Athletic Centre
Saturday, Feb. 2: Cascades at Spartans, 5 p.m., Langley Events Centre
Webcast: CanadaWest.tv

The Cascades women's basketball team has punched its post-season ticket, but its playoff picture is quite murky in terms of potential seeding.

With seeding decided by RPI (a strength of schedule metric) rather than win-loss records, the UFV squad could be slotted as high as fifth (if they sweep TWU this weekend) or as low as 11th (if they lose both to the Spartans), depending on whether the out-of-town results break their way or not.

A dizzying number of scenarios for the Cascades can be calculated via the RPI planning tool at usportshoops.ca, but head coach Al Tuchscherer isn't spending a lot of his time on equations heading into the weekend clashes with the Spartans.

"We try not to think too much about those things," he said. "We're just trying to get a little bit better every game, and improve on last week's effort."

The 2019 edition of the UFV-TWU rivalry is a fascinating match-up, with both teams in a four-way tie for seventh place in the conference coming in. Tuchscherer noted that the Spartans present a difficult challenge with their multi-faceted attack, headlined by a trio of veterans in Tessa Ratzlaff, Jessie Brown and Sarah Buckingham, along with rookie Nicole Fransson.

"Playing Trinity Western is always a fun environment," Tuchscherer noted. "They're our closest geographical rival, so there's a lot of familiarity between our two programs, with high school teammates and friendships on both teams. The games are always competitive, and fun to be a part of."

Players to watch: Speaking of high school teammates, the Cascades' Taylor Claggett and Spartans' Tessa Ratzlaff will face each other in Canada West competition for the final time (unless UFV and TWU should cross paths in the playoffs). The two played together with Abbotsford's MEI Eagles, and both are among the elite frontcourt players in the conference, and indeed, the nation. Claggett, in her fourth year, is third in Canada West scoring (18.8 points per game) and 11th in rebounding (8.7). Fifth-year Ratzlaff, a first-team CW all-star last year, is currently 11th in scoring (16.6) and 17th in rebounding (7.6).