Women's Gold Medal Preview

#1 VIU Mariners vs. #2 Douglas Royals – Saturday March 7, 5:30pm | WATCH HERE

The women’s gold medal will be decided on Saturday night when the Mariners and Royals battle for the first time in PACWEST championship history.  

It seems fitting that the top two teams in the Conference meet for all the marbles as the women’s PACWEST schedule concludes for this season.  Regardless of the outcome, both schools have already clinched a spot in the national championship tournament in a couple of weeks in Quebec, but they still have plenty to play for.  The Conference champion arguably will have slightly easier path at the nationals compared to the wildcard seed.

The Mariners got to this game after a physical win over the CBC Bearcats on Friday, 70-59.  They shot 32% in the win and Kaia Simpson was outstanding off the bench with 14 points and 10 rebounds.  Offensively they did a great job to get to the free throw line 35 times, connecting on 71%.  

On the other side the Royals also won their semi 70-59 over the Capilano Blues in a hard-fought win.  Laruen Clements was the leader with 26 points and 11 rebounds as her team shot 35% from the field.

These two schools met four times in the regular seasonal series and are very familiar with each other meeting just two weeks ago to close out the schedule at VIU.  The Mariners scored wins of 13 and 12 points respectively, part of their 10-game winning streak.  They split their first weekend doubleheader at Douglas back in November.

This will be a physical battle particularly in the paint as Simpson will no doubt match up with Mackenzie Dalphond and Laini Glover.   This game could come down to second chance opportunities if their “bigs” can be strong of the offensive glass.

The Mariners are the defending Conference champions, and the Royals won it all two seasons ago.  This will be fun to watch.