Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Adam Donnelly

CANADAWEST WOMEN'S SOCCER

WolfPack women’s soccer excited to open up the season with a pair of games this weekend

Sep 1, 2022 | 4:39 PM

KAMLOOPS — With just a couple more sleeps until the TRU WolfPack women’s soccer season begins, excitement is building among the athletes.

“We’re super excited – especially watching the men play last weekend,” second-year defender Lydia Keating, from Kelowna, says. “It definitely hyped us up. Everyone missed soccer, and with us working so hard this preseason, it’s exciting to get a live game and get going.”

“I just came back from the book store with my parents, and there were a bunch of students buying WolfPack stuff,” Alexis Virgo, a first-year player from Ottawa, says.”I think just being here at home, playing our opener will be super huge.”

The pandemic created some challenges for the women’s soccer program. Head Coach Mark Pennington was just settling into his role with the WolfPack after taking over in 2019 when COVID-19 slowed things down.

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“I think the challenge, specifically for myself and this program was we were just starting to get going,” Pennington says. “But hopefully we’ve grown in the past 12 months. We had a good spring – the first time we had a good spring training session was this one, obviously because the others were shut down. A lot of new recruits again – ten new faces in the program, and we’re hoping to really make an impact this year.”

The WolfPack will face a tough test to open up the year, as they host the University of Calgary Dinos on Saturday. However, Pennington doesn’t see a lot of easy games on anyone’s schedule in CanadaWest.

“A lot of the strongest teams in the country come out of our conference and our division,” Pennington says. “Every week it’s a strong team. Whether we’re opening against Calgary, or UNBC, UBC, Trinity, UVIC, I mean… yeah. We’ll take ‘em when we play ‘em, we’ll get ourselves organized and ready to go and no matter who the opponent is, we’ll try and get the best result we can.”

In the preseason coaches poll, TRU was tabbed as the 11th best team in the 16-team CanadaWest conference. However, the team is hoping they can surprise some opponents as they head into the season.

“It’s nice to be the underdog and surprise everyone with our style and play,” Keating says. “Even some of our preseason games coaches and other teams were surprised by us because they’re not used to the physicality and what we can offer.”

The ‘Pack welcome the Dinos to town on Saturday at noon, and the UNBC Timberwolves on Sunday, also at noon. Having a full house at Hillside Stadium could help these athletes get the results they’re hoping for.

“It would be great if we could get lots of fans out,” Keating says. “I know the men’s [team] had lots of fans their opening weekend.”

“If we’ve got a few hundred fans in the stands giving that energy to the players, it could be the difference sometimes,” Pennington says. “That extra couple of percent could push a player further and maybe nick a goal late on in a game.”

“I think it’s super huge,” Virgo says. “Just being at home and getting that environment, and everyone being super excited and super pumped to be cheering us on this weekend.”