CALGARY - The 2011 season was one to remember for the University of Calgary women's field hockey team – and as 2012 begins, the Dinos are looking to continue with that momentum as they get set for another season.

It was an off-season of uncertainty in Canada West field hockey. Just weeks after the Dinos fell 3-1 to UBC in last year's national championship game on their home turf at Hawkings Field, the University of Alberta announced it was cutting the sport. As a result, the Dinos find themselves part of a three-team league joining Victoria and UBC, and those three teams will play an eight-game regular season. The top two teams will qualify for the CIS championship in Toronto in early November.

While 2011's national silver-medal performance was the Dinos' best-ever finish in program history, plenty of the key cogs in that machine have moved on from the program. Gone are all three of the Dinos' All-Canadians from last season in Courtney Campbell, Serena Lockhart, and Kaitlyn Longworth. Goalkeeper Steph Petrowitsch has graduated, as have veterans Lindsay Koch, Laural Kuntz, Emma Guppy, and Michelle Roydhouse. That group, one of the deepest teams in program history, sent the Dinos to the CIS championship for the first time in a decade last year en route to winning the silver medal.

The current edition of the Dinos roster features nine returning players along with eight newcomers. Fifth-year senior Carolina Romeo along with fourth-year veterans Courtney Duggan and Keara Chicquen will be counted on to provide leadership and share their experience with a young roster, one that includes 11 players in their first or second year of eligibility.

Among the newcomers is Sydney Hamm, who will take over from Petrowitsch between the pipes for Jenn Swagar's sixth season as head coach of the Dinos. Erin Tod, Caitlyn Bennett, Nadia Izzo, Janelle Rice, Jessica Britton, Crystal Lockhart, and Brenna Mackay round out Swagar's recruiting class.

The Dinos open their season this weekend when they host the Victoria Vikes. Game time is 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at Hawkings Field, just west of the Olympic Oval.

-UC-