The Windsor Lancers Women's Basketball team has earned the #1 ranking in Canada, as announced on Tuesday by the CIS.
The Lancers find themselves at the top of the first official coaches poll after a tremendous pre-season which saw them go 6-0 against rival CIS teams.
Coach Chantal Vallée's squad started the year with a three-game sweep of the Panda Invitational in Alberta over Thanksgiving weekend where they earned victories over Regina, Victoria and Alberta.
They followed that up by capturing the prestigious Don Grant Classic Basketball tournament in Moncton, New Brunswick. The tournament title came after three impressive victories over Acadia, St. Mary's, and the University of New Brunswick.
For head coach Chantal Vallée, the number one ranking is particularly meaningful as she has spent the past five years transforming the program into a national power in Canada.
“This is a tremendous accomplishment for our program and a fantastic way to start off the season,” said coach Vallée. “We have a lot of hard work ahead of us but it is going to be an exciting journey towards the CIS Final 8 in Windsor this spring.”
The Lancers have captured the past two Ontario Championships with a combined regular season record of 42-2.
Last year, they reached the CIS national championship final and finished as CIS silver medalists for the first time ever in school history.
Windsor will tip-off the regular season this Friday night when they travel to Toronto to face the York Lions.
The Lancers will open their home schedule on Friday November 12
th when they play host to the Toronto Varsity Blues at 6:00pm at the St. Denis Centre.
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
(regular season record) / votes (first-place votes) / (previous rankings)
1. Windsor (0-0) / 502 pts (41) / (-)
2. Victoria (4-0) / 454 (1) / (-)
3. Regina (2-0) / 371 (1) / (-)
4. Western Ontario (0-0) / 327 / (-)
5. UNB (0-0) / 324 / (-)
6. Saskatchewan (2-2) / 288 / (-)
7. Carleton (0-0) / 225 / (-)
8. Laval (0-0) / 218 / (-)
9. Cape Breton (0-0) / 153 / (-)
10. Acadia (0-0) / 145 / (-)
Other teams receiving votes: Toronto (86), Alberta (48), Bishop's (26), Calgary (21), UBC (19), StFX (15).
