CALGARY – A fresh group of faces will hit West Varsity Soccer Pitch this season as a rejuvenated University of Calgary Dinos Women's soccer team looks to make their impact on the new-look Canada West conference.

Last season the Dinos failed to make the playoffs under new head coach Matthew Shepherd as they finished with a 6-5-3 record and in sixth place. The club will need to find a way to get wins from their own pitch this season. Last year Calgary was 1-4-2 at home, despite having one of the best road records in the conference at 5-1-1.

There will be five players for Calgary to replace this upcoming season as Caitlin Milne, Saaraa Premji, Katrina Stauss, and Deanna Fidler all completed their five years of eligibility in 2011. The Dinos will also have to do without Tessa Miller who has been one of the top players on the team for the past several years. Fourth-year player Sarah Benson will likely be asked to take the lead on offence for the team. Benson was second in goals scored on the Dinos with five in 2011.

With the expansion of the Canada West to include UNBC, Mount Royal, as well as Winnipeg being approved to field men's and women's soccer teams, there will be a number of key changes for this upcoming year. Women's soccer will now have a record 13 teams competing for eight playoff spots, which is double the amount up for grabs in 2011. Teams will play each other just once during the regular season.

Following his first campaign, head coach Shepherd has added some help for year two when he announced the addition of Andrew Perrotta, Paul Schultz and Ben Spendlove as assistant coaches. Perrotta brings a ton of experience to the Dinos' sideline, having worked with elite-level athletes, including some who competed in the 2012 London Olympics. Schultz has been involved with Calgary minor soccer for over a decade and now gets a chance to work with players above the grassroots level. Moving from men's soccer to the women's side, new goaltending coach Spendlove won't have to spend too much time getting familiar with the area after playing two seasons in net for the Dinos men's team.

Calgary will be one of the youngest teams in the conference this year, coming in with 12 potential players competing in their first year of eligibility in the CIS. Something that should make the transition easy will be the number of players from Calgary. Five of the recruits were teammates on the Calgary Foothills Voltage '94s, another two players were members of the Calgary Alliance along with one first year coming from South-West United.

The Dinos travel to the University of British Columbia to take on the Thunderbirds in their season opener on Sept. 7 before visiting the Trinity Western Spartans the next evening. Calgary's home opener at West Varsity Soccer Pitch happens on Sept. 15 against the rival University of Alberta Pandas.

-UC-