Evan Daum, Canada West Communications

EDMONTON – The Canada West soccer playoffs open this weekend with a new look on the women’s side highlighting the first weekend of action. 

The new women’s playoff format features a pair of teams in each division hosting play-in games, as well as quarter-final action this week. Four teams will then advance to the Final Four, which will be hosted the following weekend by the highest remaining seed (top Prairie team hosts in 2017 and top Pacific team hosts in 2018).

The CW Final Four tournament replaces the Select Six championship format, which had been in place for the previous two seasons. 

A total of 12 teams open the women’s soccer post-season this week, with the first play-in game slated for 7 p.m. PDT Thursday between the Fraser Valley Cascades and Lethbridge Pronghorns.

That game will be hosted by the Trinity Western Spartans (1^st Pacific Division), who are joined by the Victoria Vikes (2^nd Pacific Division), Alberta Pandas (1^st Prairie Division), and Saskatchewan Huskies (2^nd Prairie Division) as first round hosts. 

The quintet earned byes into the conference quarter-finals, and will await the winners of their respective play-in games (see complete schedule below). 

Both TWU and Victoria posted exceptional regular seasons in the Pacific Division, finishing with 31 points apiece, while Alberta was stellar in the Prairie Division with 32 points. 

On the men’s side, the playoff format from a year ago is unchanged as eight teams punched their ticket to the post-season, with the top four teams set to host quarter-finals this weekend. 

The defending CW champion Alberta Golden Bears enter their quarter-final matchup against the UNBC Timberwolves after topping the conference regular season standings with a 9-1-4 record. The T-Wolves, both the men and women, are in the CW playoffs for the first time in school history after joining the conference in 2012 and will be looking to score upsets against Alberta (men’s) and Calgary (women’s) respectively. 

You can watch the majority of this weekend’s CW playoff action by tuning into Canada West TV.

A total of five CW teams will emerge from the conference playoffs with national tournament berths in hand, including the Thompson Rivers WolfPack on the men's side and Manitoba Bison women's side get set to host the U SPORTS championship November 9-12. An additional men's team will join TRU in Kamloops for the tournament, while two women's teams will also go for gold alongside Manitoba in Winnipeg.

2017 CW Women's Soccer Playoff Schedule

2017 CW Men's Soccer Playoff Schedule