Thursday, March 3: Cascades at Trinity Western Spartans, 6 p.m., Langley Events Centre
Friday, March 4: Cascades vs. Brandon Bobcats, 6 p.m., UFV Athletic Centre
Saturday, March 5: Cascades vs. Calgary Dinos, 4 p.m., UFV Athletic Centre
Webcast: CanadaWest.tv presented by Co-op

Neutral-site game at the UFV Athletic Centre:
Thursday, March 3: Brandon Bobcats vs. Calgary Dinos, 6 p.m.

THE MATCH-UPS

The Cascades find themselves in a unique position heading into their first Canada West post-season, as they'll be co-hosting a four-team playoff pool with the Trinity Western Spartans. The Spartans, who earned the right to host both women's and men's playoff pools, have a shortage of court time available at the Langley Events Centre due to the B.C. high school girls basketball championships running concurrently at the LEC; thus, the co-hosting arrangement with UFV.

The upshot is, the Cascades (West Division No. 4) will get to play two of their three first-round games at home. Their pool, in addition to the Spartans (West No. 1), also features the Brandon Bobcats (East No. 2) and Calgary Dinos (Central No. 3). The top two finishers after the round robin will advance to the next round.

RECENT FORM

The Cascades ended the regular season on a high note, defeating a tough UBC Okanagan Heat squad in four sets on Feb. 21. After a weekend off, they're rested heading into a three-games-in-three-days playoff stretch.

The UFV squad knows the Spartans well, having played them four times in divisional action, and they faced the Dinos twice in the preseason, dropping a five-setter on Oct. 17 and winning in four on Oct. 23. The Bobcats and Cascades have never played one another before.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Amanda Matsui, UFV – The dynamic outside hitter had a smashing debut campaign in Canada West, finishing fourth in the conference in kills (3.60) and fifth in points (4.0) per set, despite being the focus of every opponent's game plan. Matsui and her teammates will look to capitalize on home court advantage in two of their three games this week as they make their CW playoff debut.

Savannah Purdy, TWU – The Spartans' outside hitter was the top attacking threat for the nation's No. 1-ranked team – she averaged 2.88 kills per set in conference play.

Ravyn Wiebe, Brandon – Wiebe finished just behind Matsui on the CW kills-per-set leaderboard, checking in at No. 6, averaging 3.56.

Kenzie Vaandering, Calgary – The fourth-year outside hitter paced the Dinos and ranked 11th in CW, averaging 3.0 kills per set.  

QUOTABLE

"It's really awesome. Coming into U SPORTS this year, everyone (externally) was talking about how we're the underdog and we're probably not going to make playoffs. So just making it to the playoffs is pretty awesome – we know we can do this, and we've worked hard to get here. Now, playing in our own gym is even more amazing because we'll have more of our fans coming out. It's super-exciting." – Cascades right side Sadie Wilson, on the opportunity to have playoff games at home

"Game-planning really changes, because right now we're game-planning for three teams in the same week. That's kind of tough, especially since each of them play a little bit of a different system. But that just means we need to be more dynamic and prepared for anything. It keeps us on our toes, ready for anything. I think the playoff atmosphere will be good. We might be a little bit nervous because obviously we haven't played in a U SPORTS playoff game before, but I'm also excited to see who pops up and really is here to play to win. That will spread to the rest of the team. We have nothing to lose. We're just going to go out and play hard." – Wilson, on her team's approach to their playoff debut