The Mount Royal Cougars are the men's and women's athletic teams that represent

Mount Royal University Mount Royal University (MRU) is a public university in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. History Mount Royal University was founded by Alberta provincial charter by the Arthur Sifton government on December 16, 1910 and officially opened on September 8 ...

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

, Canada. The Cougars field eight varsity teams with four men's teams and four women's teams that compete in the

Canada West Universities Athletic Association Canada West is a regional membership association for universities in Western Canada which assists in co-ordinating competition between their university level athletic programs and providing contact information, schedules, results, and releases abo ...

U Sports U Sports (stylized as U SPORTS) is the national sport governing body of university sport in Canada, comprising the majority of degree-granting universities in the country. Its equivalent body for organized sports at colleges in Canada is the Ca ...

. The Cougars were previously members of the

Alberta Colleges Athletics Conference The Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) is the governing body for collegiate sports in Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1964, as the Western Inter-College Conference, the ACAC is represented by eighteen schools, including one in Saskatchewan, t ...

of the

Canadian Colleges Athletic Association The Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) is the national governing body for organized sports at the collegiate level in Canada. Its name in French is l'Association canadienne du sport collégial (ACSC). National championships CCAA m ...

prior to the move to CIS (since renamed U Sports) in 2012.

Varsity teams

Men's basketball

The Cougars men's basketball program has yielded two national championship teams as members of the

, winning in 1979 and in 2009. Upon moving to the

Canada West The Province of Canada (or the United Province of Canada or the United Canadas) was a British colony in North America from 1841 to 1867. Its formation reflected recommendations made by John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, in the Report on the ...

conference in 2012, the Cougars saw some success in the Explorers division in 2015 and 2016, but did not qualify for the playoffs until 2019 where they lost the play-in game to the

Regina Cougars The Regina Cougars are the athletic teams that represent the University of Regina in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. The Cougars compete in all sports except football; the university's football team is known as the Regina Rams. A number of the R ...

. The team plays their home games at the Kenyon Court on the MRU campus.

Women's basketball

The Cougars

women's basketball Women's basketball is the team sport of basketball played by women. It began being played in 1892, one year after men's basketball, at Smith College in Massachusetts. It spread across the United States, in large part via women's college compet ...

team won one national championship in 2000 and six silver medals, most recently in 2004, while competing in the

. The team recently made it to playoffs last season for their first time in USPORT history with the head coach, Robyn Fleckenstein. The team plays their home games at the Kenyon Court on the MRU campus.

Men's hockey

10-03-16 Air Force Hockey vs Mount Royal (2910652)

The Cougars men's ice hockey team had won 12

championships prior to the move to the

. The team first qualified for the Canada West playoffs in their second season in the conference in the 2013–14 season and consistently qualified for the playoffs in each season since then. However, the team had not advanced past the conference semi-finals. The team plays home games at the Flames Community Arena.

Women's hockey

The Cougars

women's ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two o ...

program first began play for the 2001–02 season and won five conference titles in their 11 years in the

. The team plays home games at the Flames Community Arena. After seeing initial challenges upon moving to the Canada West conference of CIS, the Cougars first qualified for the playoffs in 2017 where they lost to the

Manitoba Bisons The Manitoba Bisons are the athletic teams that represent the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The football team plays their games at Investors Group Field. The soccer team play their home games at the University of Manitoba ...

. The team won their first playoffs series in 2020 after defeating the

Saskatchewan Huskies The University of Saskatchewan began in 1907 and has operated teams that compete with others since 1911. The term Huskie Athletics is defined as those student athletes from the University of Saskatchewan that compete in elite interuniversity ...

in the quarter-final and then went on to beat the

Calgary Dinos The Calgary Dinos are the athletic teams that represent the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada. They were known as the "Dinosaurs" but usually referred to as the "Dinos" until 1999, when the name was officially shortened. Some of its venue ...

in the semi-final before losing the Canada West final to the

Alberta Pandas The Alberta Golden Bears and Pandas are the sports teams that represent the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Alberta athletics teams have won a total of 93 national championships, including 79 U Sports sanctioned sports, making ...

. As a conference finalist, the Cougars qualified for their first

U Sports women's ice hockey championship The Golden Path Trophy is a national collegiate sports award, presented annually to the women's ice hockey champions of U Sports, Canada's governing body for university sports. The trophy was donated by Katherine Cartwright in 1998, which is when ...

tournament in

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

and won their opening game, but the remainder of the tournament was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic in Canada The COVID-19 pandemic in Canada is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (). It is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). Most cases over the course of the pandemic have been in Ontario, Que ...

Men's soccer

The Cougars men's soccer team won three national titles and 13 conference titles as members of the

. The Cougars first qualified for the playoffs in 2015 and played in the conference Final Four in 2019. The team plays home games at Mount Royal Field.

Women's soccer

The Cougars

women's soccer Women's association football, more commonly known simply as women's football or women's soccer, is a team sport of association football when played by women only. It is played at the women's professional sports, professional level in multiple c ...

program first began in 1994 and wielded dominance over their 18-year tenure in the

by winning eight conference championships and only losing nine regular season games over those 18 years. In their fourth year in the

, in 2015, the Cougars first qualified for the playoffs where they lost to the

. The team plays home games at Mount Royal Field.

Men's volleyball

The Cougars men's volleyball program had an outstanding run in the

after winning seven national championships along with 18 conference titles. As members of the

beginning in the 2012–13 season, the team first qualified for the conference playoffs in the 2015–16 season. The Cougars won their first playoff match in 2019 against the

, but lost in the semi-finals to the eventual conference champion

Brandon Bobcats The Brandon Bobcats are the athletic teams that represent Brandon University in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada. Currently, there are six Bobcat teams competing in U Sports as members of the Canada West Universities Athletic Association while the Bobcat ...

. However, due to their strong season, the Cougars were awarded an at-large berth in the 2019 U Sports Men's Volleyball Championship tournament, which was their first ever appearance in the

national event National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

. The Cougars finished in sixth place in the 2019 national tournament. The Cougars play their home games at the Kenyon Court on the MRU campus.

Women's volleyball

The Cougars women's volleyball team won one CCAA national championship in 2011 and 14 ACAC titles prior to the 2012 move to the

. In their first season in Canada West in 2012–13, the team qualified for the playoffs and defeated the

UBC Okanagan Heat The UBC Okanagan Heat are the athletic teams that represent the University of British Columbia Okanagan in Kelowna, British Columbia and currently compete in the Canada West conference of U Sports. The Heat field varsity teams in basketball, cros ...

before losing to the

in the conference semi-finals. The team was unable to again advance past the first round of the playoffs until 2020 when the Cougars won the conference bronze medal and qualified for their first U Sports national tournament in

. However, the tournament was cancelled due to the

. The team plays their home games at the Kenyon Court on the MRU campus.

References

External links

* {{U Sports volleyball Mount Royal Cougars U Sports teams Cougars, Mount Royal U Sports teams in Alberta