Lethbridge – Hosting the national women's rugby for the second time in school history, the Lethbridge Pronghorns face a daunting task in the quarter-finals, drawing the number one seed and defending U SPORTS National Champion St. FX X-Women.
The Pronghorns and X-Women will clash in the fourth quarter-final, with kick-off slated for 5:00pm at the University Community Stadium in Lethbridge.
The tournament begins Thursday morning at 11:00am with the third seeded and Canada West Champion Calgary Dinos taking on sixth seed Queen's Gaels. Full Championship schedule and information at
www.usports.ca.
All games from the tournament will be livestreamed at
www.sportscanada.tv/usports.
For the Pronghorns, seeded eighth, the quest for the schools fourth national rugby championship will be a difficult one but the Pronghorns and X-Women are not unfamiliar foes and the Pronghorns hope that their success versus the X-Women will continue in 2017.
"we are excited to be playing our longtime rival St. FX," said head coach Neil Langevin. "It will be a daunting task against the defending champions but the great Canada West conference competition has aided our daily improvement since the beginning of training camp."
"I am proud of this team and am looking forward to the game."
The Pronghorns and X-Women have faced each other six times at the then called CIS Championship with the Pronghorns winning five of those match-ups. The two teams last faced each other in Kingston in 2015 with the Pronghorns coming out on top 20-12 in one of the consolation semi-finals.
St. FX beat the Pronghorns in 2011 in the semi-finals, 20-5, while the Pronghorns beat the X-Women in back-to-back CIS Championship games in 2008 and 2009. University of Lethbridge hosted the championship in 2008.
The Pronghorns also won semi-final games in 2007 (5-3) and 2003 (13-11).
After going through the Canada West conference season with a 2-2 record, the Pronghorns played arguably their best game of the season in the Canada West semi-final versus the Victoria Vikes, losing a close 20-17 decision.
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