It's a fierce rivalry within the Canadian Interuniversity Sport’s pacific division.

Just ask Brian Cheng, coach of the University of Victoria Vikes’ women’s basketball team. Cheng’s seen the past seven CIS champions come out of the pacific division, three each for the University of B.C. and Simon Fraser with UVic’s last title coming in 2002-03

The Vikes are preparing for a two game series against the Trinity Western Spartans Friday and Saturday.

“Trinity in the past have had a poor record because on any given schedule they play the no. 1, 2, and 3 ranked teams three times each, and nine of their 23 games come against ranked teams in Canada,” said Cheng, and that’s just their own division. Throw in the ranked teams from the Great Plains division and 50 per cent of Trinity’s schedule is against the top teams in the CIS.

Naturally, the same scheduling goes for the Vikes and this year’s is particularly front-loaded with tough competition said Cheng. With no soft games in the Vikes’ schedule the 5-3 Spartans, who’ve been playing very well, are as easy as they’ll come until the Vikes enter the later portion of their schedule.

So far the Vikes, three wins and five losses, have fallen to the CIS second ranked team Alberta, fourth ranked Saskatchewan and first ranked UBC. Last weekend the the Vikes split their trip with a win over the Brandon Bobcats 88-39 and a 63-52 loss to the Regina Cougars. The Cougars are now ranked second in the country.

“We happen to be one of those ranked teams usually, and we try to split (our two-game weekends) with those teams,” said Cheng. “We have a young squad here, and with respect to that we’re just trying to focus on ourselves, one possession at at time.”

The Vikes roster includes just two fourth year players, Kayla Dykstra and Ashley Yee, and boasts a majority of first, second and third year players.

Dykstra has developed into the club’s leader on the court, said Cheng. Dykstra’s best effort came when she tallied 20 points and 17 rebounds against UBC though the Vikes were unable to defeat defending champion Thunderbirds, losing 74-70.

“We’re dealing with a schedule where we have a young squad and we have to learn how to win against ranked teams,” said Cheng.

“Normally we’ve had these ranked teams spread out evenly throughout the schedule,” said the coach. Last year the ranked teams were spread out evenly through Vikes schedule. “We didn’t have them concentrated at the beginning of the season, we will have a much better second half not only because we’ll be older and wiser but because it’ll be lighter.”

Game time against the Trinity Western Spartans is Friday, Nov. 21, 6 p.m. in UVic’s McKinnon Gym, men at 8 p.m.,

Saturday night the Vikes women play at 5 p.m. and men at 7 p.m.

sports@vicnews.com