CALGARY - The University of Calgary Dinos play their first two-game home set of the season this weekend as the Fraser Valley Cascades and the Victoria Vikes pay their annual visits to the West Varsity Soccer Pitch.

Fraser Valley is on tap for Saturday afternoon's action, while the Vikes take on the Dinos Sunday. Both schools travel to Lethbridge on their opposite days.

Both Dinos teams head into the third week of the season with identical 3-1 records after both swept the annual home-and-home series with Lethbridge last weekend under windy conditions both days.

At 3-1, the Dinos women find themselves in a tie for second place in Canada West with Saskatchewan and UBC, one game back of first-place, 4-0 Alberta – who handed Calgary its lone defeat on the season.

Second-year Dinos striker Sarah Benson earned the Canada West athlete of the week award after the Lethbridge series, scoring three of the Dinos' four goals on the weekend. In Saturday's 2-0 triumph at home, Benson had both goals for the Dinos, while she scored the game-winner in the 68th minute of Calgary's 2-1 victory Sunday afternoon in Lethbridge. Benson is now tied for third in the conference scoring race with five points through four matches.

Benson and the Dinos face a pair of squads who have struggled out of the gate in Fraser Valley and Victoria. The Cascades, who are defending Canada West champions in women's soccer, won their first two in a row on the road with identical 2-1 victories over Manitoba and Regina but couldn't get it done at home last weekend, dropping a pair to Saskatchewan (2-1) and Alberta (3-1).

The Vikes, meanwhile, managed just a 1-1 tie with Regina to open the year. They did beat Manitoba, but 1-0 and 2-1 losses to Alberta and Saskatchewan, respectively, have them sitting at just 1-2-1 through four matches.

Last year, the Dinos fell 3-1 to the Cascades in their lone meeting but did managed to outscore the Vikes 3-2 on the last day of the 2010 regular season.

In a rare scheduling twist, the Dinos women will face the same two teams next weekend in B.C., beginning with a Saturday afternoon affair in Victoria followed by a Sunday game in Abbotsford against the Cascades.

The Dinos men have also put up a 3-1 record to open the year and were rewarded this week with the No. 10 national ranking by CIS coaches. The Dinos sit tied with Saskatchewan for first place in Canada West, with Calgary's only blemish coming against those Huskies on the opening day of the season.

Rookie goalkeeper Colin Hasick, who came into the season third on the team's depth chart, got an opportunity to play due to injuries and has made the most of it. Hasick has won all three games he has played, giving up just two goals in 270 minutes for a conference-best 0.67 goals-against average.

The Dinos' scoring has been spread out to this point, with four different players notching at least one tally. Jeremy Jenkyns leads the way with two, while Izak Lawrence, Yoann Promonet, and Cristian Lorenzoni have each scored once.

The Cascades come into Calgary riding a three-game losing streak after pulling off a 1-0 victory at Trinity Western to open the year. A 4-2 loss to UBC followed the next day, followed by 4-1 and 2-1 setbacks to Saskatchewan and Alberta last week at home.

Victoria's record heading into the weekend is one point better than UFV's thanks to a 1-1 draw with Alberta last weekend. The Vikes, who are hosting the national championship tournament this fall, seem to have righted the ship after losing 4-0 to UBC and 2-1 to TWU in week one and proceeded to tie Alberta and defeat Saskatchewan 2-1 last weekend.

The Dinos went 2-0 against Fraser Valley in 2010 and split their two games with Victoria.

Following next week's coastal road trips and the Thanksgiving weekend bye, Calgary returns home Oct. 15-16 to host the Alberta Golden Bears and Pandas along with the Saskatchewan Huskies.

-UC-