OTTAWA (CIS) – The seeding, pools and schedule were announced Monday for the 2013 Canadian Interuniversity Sport women's rugby championship, which gets under way later this week in Quebec City.
The tournament, hosted for the first time by Laval University, kicks off on Thursday and concludes Sunday with the gold-medal final scheduled for 2 p.m. All nine games from the tourney will be webcast live on CIS-SIC.tv.
The six teams set to compete for the Monilex trophy at TELUS-UL Stadium are the top-seeded and defending national champion St. Francis Xavier X-Women (AUS champions), No. 2 Queen's Gaels (OUA champs), No. 3 Alberta Pandas (Canada West champs), No. 4 McGill Martlets (RSEQ champs), No. 5 Guelph Gryphons (OUA finalists) and No. 6 Laval Rouge et Or (hosts).
StFX claimed its 16th straight AUS conference title on Sunday thanks to a thrilling 19-12 overtime win over Acadia.
Queen's edged Guelph 19-15 in Saturday's Ontario final to capture its first-ever OUA banner and put an end to the Gryphons' five-year reign in the conference.
Alberta beat Calgary 27-10 in the Canada West title match on Oct. 20 to repeat as league champion.
McGill upset defending conference champ Concordia 41-34 in Saturday's RSEQ gold-medal game to merit its first Quebec banner since 2005. Concordia had previously outscored Laval 38-3 in the RSEQ semis.
For the first time in three years, StFX and Guelph will not meet in the national final as they have been grouped with McGill in Pool A for the preliminary round of the CIS tournament. The X-Women and Gryphons face off in the championship opener Thursday at 10:30 a.m., with the Martlets waiting to play the losers on Friday morning.
In last year's Monilex trophy final, StFX crushed Guelph 37-0 to avenge a 28-0 loss to its archrivals in 2011.
In Pool B, Queen's and Laval are set to battle Thursday at 1:30 p.m. Alberta faces the losing team Friday afternoon.
The first-place finishers in groups A and B advance to the gold-medal final. The middle teams will battle for CIS bronze and the last-place finishers for fifth position.
The Pandas (5), X-Women (3) and Gryphons (2) have all captured multiple Monilex trophies since the inaugural CIS championship was held in 1998, while the Gaels, Martlets and Rouge et Or are still vying for their first national title.
NOTES: Seeding for the CIS championship is based on conference results at the previous year's tournament... A complete championship preview will follow on Tuesday... The 2013 CIS individual award winners and all-Canadian teams will be announced on Wednesday.
Official championship website: http://english.cis-sic.ca/championships/wrugby/index
POOLS
Pool A
No. 1 StFX X-Women (AUS champions: 7-1 regular season / 2-0 playoffs)
No. 4 McGill Martlets (RSEQ champions: 6-1 regular season / 2-0 playoffs)
No. 5 Guelph Gryphons (OUA finalists: 5-0 regular season / 2-1 playoffs)
Pool B
No. 2 Queen's Gaels (OUA champions: 5-0 regular season / 3-0 playoffs)
No. 3 Alberta Pandas (Canada West champions: 4-0 regular season / 2-0 playoffs)
No. 6 Laval Rouge et Or (Hosts: 4-3 regular season / 0-1 playoffs)
CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE
Note: All games will be played at TELUS-UL Stadium except those on Saturday, Nov. 2, which will be played on Field #11 behind Louis-Jacques-Casault Hall (on campus).
Wednesday, Oct. 30
18:00 All-Canadian Awards Gala (Universel Hotel)
Thursday, Oct. 31
10:30 Pool A: StFX vs. Guelph (CIS-SIC.tv)
13:30 Pool B: Queen's vs. Laval (CIS-SIC.tv)
Friday, Nov. 1
10:30 Pool A: Loser (StFX-Guelph) vs. McGill (CIS-SIC.tv)
13:30 Pool B: Loser (Queen's-Laval) vs. Alberta (CIS-SIC.tv)
Saturday, Nov. 2
10:30 Pool A: Winner (StFX-Guelph) vs. McGill (CIS-SIC.tv)
13:30 Pool B: Winner (Queen's-Laval) vs. Alberta (CIS-SIC.tv)
Sunday, Nov. 3
10:00 Fifth place: 3rd Pool A vs. 3rd Pool B (CIS-SIC.tv)
12:00 Bronze medal: 2nd Pool A vs. 2nd Pool B (CIS-SIC.tv)
14:00 Championship final: 1st Pool A vs. 1st Pool B (CIS-SIC.tv)