They may not have home-court advantage for their first round playoff series, but the Langley Thunder do have something else: confidence.
Matched up against the Victoria Shamrocks for the Western Lacrosse Association's best-of-seven semifinal series, the Thunder enter game one (Aug. 2) with the confidence of having won the season series.
In three games with Victoria, Langley was unbeaten, with one victory and two ties.
The team's opened the season by playing to a 13-13 draw and also played to a 14-14 tie a few weeks ago.
The other match-up was a low-scoring affair, won 6-5 by the Thunder in late June, which came at the Langley Events Centre.
Victoria (10-6-2) finished second in the seven-team senior A lacrosse league, four points ahead of Langley (8-8-2).
The Thunder had an excellent home record, finishing 7-2 at the Langley Events Centre, but they were the worst road team in the WLA, finishing a dismal 1-6-2 as the visitors.
Athan Iannucci leads the way for the Langley offence, after notching 29 goals and 29 assists to finish ninth in league scoring and tied for sixth in goals.
Andrew Potter (23 goals, 27 assists), Alex Turner (17 goals, 25 assists) and Dan Williams (11 goals, 28 assists) also finished in the top 25 in league scoring.
In goal, Brodie MacDonald is expected to get the call.
The rookie was second among goaltenders in minutes played and he was third in goals against (8.60) and fourth in save percentage (.822). He finished the season with a 6-2-2 record.
The Thunder host games two and four on Thursday (Aug. 4) and Monday (Aug. 8) at the Langley Events Centre with game three back in Victoria on Aug. 6.
The other playoff series features top-seed New Westminster (11-5-2) against fourth-place Maple Ridge (8-10).