Playoffs begin for basketball and volleyball

Posted: February 22, 2011

The playoff picture is now clear for both the men’s basketball and volleyball teams. Both teams start their playoffs this week.

Basketball
The Briercrest men’s basketball team is on the road to Lethbridge, where they will take on Red Deer College on Wednesday night, for the first round of playoffs. The guys need to win that game to advance to the ACAC quarter-finals. The first round is a one-game, winner moves on situation, while the quarter final is a best of three series.

With a win on Wednesday night, the Clippers would then begin a best of three series against Lethbridge College on Thursday night. That series will continue through to Saturday if it goes to a third game.

For now, the Clippers are focused on the first round game against the Red Deer King’s which will be at 7:00 p.m. Alberta time on Wednesday. Red Deer finished the regular season in fifth place in the ACAC South Division, while Briercrest finished two wins ahead, in fourth place. The two teams met on opening weekend of the regular season, with Briercrest winning on Friday night and Red Deer winning on Saturday. It should be a great matchup on Wednesday!  

The basketball games will not be broadcast on-line, but you can follow the team’s updates on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ClipperMenBBall . There will be an update every quarter.

Volleyball
Men’s volleyball begins their quest for an ACAC Championship and a birth to CCAA Nationals this Friday. The Clippers will take on the Grande Prairie Wolves in the first round, which is a rematch of last year’s quarter final round, which saw the Clippers win in straight sets.

It will not be an easy first round matchup for the top-ranked Clippers, as the Wolves are flying high after defeating the Medicine Hat Rattlers 3-1 and 3-0 in two straight matches, to win their best-of-three qualification series on the weekend. Grande Prairie finished in ninth place during the regular season with a record of 9-11. They earned the eighth and final spot in the ACAC Conference Championship tournament by defeating Medicine Hat. Briercrest and Grande Prairie did not meet during the regular season.

The match between Briercrest and Grande Prairie takes place at 6:00 p.m. Alberta time, at the King’s University College. The match will be broadcast on www.sportscanada.tv, as will all of the matches from the tournament. The tournament is a single elimination format, so a first round win is a must in order to be on the championship side of the draw. Be sure to tune in and cheer on your Clippers!