When you live on the biggest, baddest block in the country, you have no choice but to be bigger and badder.
That, of course, is easier said than done.
The University of Victoria Vikes might have looked at the CIS national women鈥檚 soccer pre-season top-10 poll and gulped. Every team in their division is ranked 鈥� Trinity Western No. 2 in sa国际传媒, Fraser Valley No. 4 and UBC No. 9 鈥� and UVic faces each twice. Throw in Alberta, another team the Vikes play this year, at No. 8.
UVic head coach Tracy David鈥檚 crew faces, without a doubt, the most difficult schedule in the country. That regular season begins today against the UBC Thunderbirds at 5 p.m. at Centennial Stadium.
The Vikes were 8-1-3 in the conference and No. 5 in sa国际传媒 last year before a shock quarter-final playoff loss. Five of the players from that team have graduated, including captain Carlita Branion-Calles and former Canadian U-20 FIFA World Cup international Jaclyn Sawicki.
Stepping into the breach will be dangerous returning striker Emma Greig from Tofino, promising rookie striker Kiara Kilbey out of Stelly鈥檚 Secondary, returning midfield sisters and Claremont grads Shannon and Megan Elder and veteran backliners Samantha Lee, Lindsay Machin, Elise Butler and Olivia Swinton.
Perhaps the key returnee is fourth-year Reynolds grad, goalkeeper and 2014 sa国际传媒 West first-team all-star Meaghan Storie, who will provide veteran stability in the nets. The most interesting newcomer is Mia Gunter from Edmonton, a transfer from the Pac-12 University of Oregon Ducks.
UVic finished the pre-season 2-1-1.
The UVic Vikes men鈥檚 soccer team, meanwhile, also has a difficult opener today against CIS national fifth-ranked UBC at Thunderbird Stadium in Vancouver. Bruce Wilson鈥檚 Vikes, sa国际传媒 West semifinalists last year, were an honourable mention in the 2015 pre-season CIS poll.
The Vikes return a veteran-laden roster with a potent forward corps of Cam Hundal, Craig Gorman, Michael Baart and Parm Johal, with Tarnvir Bhandal, Adam Ravenhill, Sam Prette, Dominic Colantonio and Paulo Dait part of a solid, two-way midfield and Rhyse Harnden anchoring the defence. The goaltending of six-foot-three veteran Noah Pawlowski is first rate, and maybe the best in the CIS.
Hundal and Gorman co-captain the Vikes squad, which was undefeated at 5-0 in pre-season.
