CALGARY – After a bumpy first two weeks of the regular season, the University of Calgary Dinos will try to right the ship as they play host to two B.C. teams this weekend at the West Varsity Soccer Pitch.

This weekend's matches will begin on Saturday as the Dinos take on Victoria, including a men's team who are the defending CIS champions. On Sunday, the teams will wrap up their home stands with match-ups against the Fraser Valley Cascades.

The season began the wrong way for both Dinos squads two weeks ago on a west coast road trip, with the lone point for either team coming from the men in a tie against Trinity Western. Last weekend, while the lady Dinos looked to have found some chemistry, the men continued to fall on hard times in two losses against Lethbridge.

Victoria's women's team comes into town with a 2-0-1 record after a dominant 10-0 victory over UNBC. The Vikes finished 2011 in fourth place, two spots ahead of the Dinos, with a record of 7-4-3. The Vikes men's soccer team, which carries just as much firepower, will be looking to get back in the win column coming off a winless road trip against Trinity Western and UBC last weekend. The Victoria men won the CIS crown on home turf last season.

Sunday's opponent, the Cascades, will feature two teams going in opposite directions. The women's side has jumped out to a 2-1-0 record, although both wins have come against two of the conference's newest teams in Mount Royal and UNBC. The club fell in their toughest challenge to date, a 2-1 loss to Alberta. The Fraser Valley's men's team, on the other hand, has started 0-2-0 after finishing last in 2011. The losses came 4-2 against UBC and 2-1 versus Trinity Western.

Calgary's women's team sits with a record of 0-2-2 following two draws at home last weekend. Their first point came last Saturday as the Dinos pulled off a gutsy scoreless draw against a strong Pandas squad. The next day, while still picking up a point, Calgary fell short of expectations as failed to knockoff first-year cross-town rival Mount Royal in a 1-1 draw.

With 13 first-years on the roster, Matt Shepherd has already started to see the development of some of these young players into key contributors on the women's team. While playing their first home games of their collegiate careers, both Maddie Lee and Nikki Furukawa made strong impacts, looking like veterans on the field. Lee through four games has a goal and an assist to lead the team in scoring, proving to be one of the squad's top offensive threats early this season. You may often hear the term 'hockey sense' thrown around players with the right feel and sense for the game, and you could say that Furukawa seems to have good 'soccer sense.' The intelligence to her game along with the ability to get the ball up the field quickly is impressive and should become a vital part of the Calgary offence over the next few years.

The Dinos men are scratching their heads following their annual home-and-home set against Lethbridge. Calgary was shutout in both contests while being upset by the scores of 1-0 and 2-0 to their southern rivals. The first game of the series was decided on a penalty kick rewarded to the Pronghorns, while the second game saw Lethbridge control the game from start to finish on route to the victory. Overall, the club will need to find a way to direct more shots on net after being outshot 73-45 through the first four games of the season. The Dinos' lone goal of the season so far has come from the foot of Robin Whittaker during their 1-1 draw against Trinity Western on opening weekend. Six of the seven goals Calgary has conceded so far in 2012 have come in the second half.

The Dinos women's team will travel south next weekend to take on the Pronghorns on Sept. 29 in Lethbridge. On Sept. 29, the men's side will be in Prince George will they will meet UNBC for the first time.

-UC-