Acadia University to host 2016 Women's Soccer National Championship

OTTAWA (CIS) – Canadian Interuniversity Sport announced Monday the hosts for eight national championships in soccer and volleyball over the next two academic years.

In women's soccer, the University of British Columbia will host the 2015 CIS tournament in Vancouver, while the 30th anniversary edition of the championship in 2016 will take place at Acadia University in Wolfville, N.S.

Acadia's Director of Athletics, Kevin Dickie is thrilled to be hosting the CIS Women's Soccer Championship in 2016. "With our combined success in athletics and academics, and our significantly enhanced facilities we believe hosting at the CIS level continues to make us a top national program. What I am most excited about is that the rest of the country will have a chance to see the special integration we have with our community and how big of a deal athletics is on our campus."

Both schools have previously hosted the competition in its early days, UBC in 1988 and 1990 and Acadia in 1989 and 2000.

Head coach Amit Batra, of the Axewomen soccer team was thrilled with the choice of Acadia as host of the 2016 championship. "It is a true honour to be selected to represent Acadia and the Atlantic University Sport Conference as host of the 30th edition of this tournament. I feel it's fitting as Acadia is  one of the pioneers in Women's University soccer and has storied history including a National championship and six conference titles."

Batra also noted, "It's also important for the AUS to continue to host, as historically it has delivered five National championships and countless other medals over the years.   There were many great schools with a strong history in the sport that could have won the bid and all would have done a great job. Therefore we know how high the bar is set and we know it's also our responsibility to deliver an amazing National Championship experience for all the teams, the community, the University,  the fans, and for soccer itself.", adding "It's an exciting day for our program and for all the players past and present who have put Acadia on the national map from which we can make the most of this opportunity."

In men's soccer, both the 2015 and 2016 championships will be staged in Ontario, first at York University in Toronto and then at the University of Guelph.

York (1972, 1996) and Guelph (1990, 1992) have both hosted the event twice in the past.

In women's volleyball, history will be made over the next few years as Brandon University (2016) and Ryerson University in Toronto (2017) will both organize the competition for the first time.

In fact, the 2016 tournament will mark the first staging of a CIS championship at Brandon, in any sport.

Meanwhile, in men's volleyball, CIS is going back to a pair of campuses where the national tournament has enjoyed great success over the years. The event will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2016 at McMaster University in Hamilton, before moving to the University of Alberta in Edmonton in 2017.

The U of A has previously hosted the tourney on six occasions (1967, 1974, 1993, 2002, 2003, 2009) and McMaster three times (1979, 2006, 2007).

"We're excited about this exceptional lineup of new and experienced hosts," said Pierre Lafontaine, chief executive officer of CIS. "There is no doubt that all these universities will stage first-class event and will create memorable experiences for our student-athletes."

This season's CIS soccer championships are set for Nov. 6 to 9 at Laval in Quebec City (women) and UPEI in Charlottetown (men), while the volleyball tournaments are scheduled for the end of February at the University of Toronto (women) and the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon (men).

2015 & 2016 CIS SOCCER CHAMPIONSHIP HOSTS

Women

2015: UBC (Vancouver)

2016: Acadia (Wolfville, N.S.)

Men

2015: York (Toronto)

2016: Guelph (Guelph, Ont.)

2016 & 2017 CIS VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIP HOSTS

Women

2016: Brandon (Brandon, Man.)

2017: Ryerson (Toronto)

Men

2016: McMaster (Hamilton, Ont.)

2017: Alberta (Edmonton)