A busy weekend of action for the University of Calgary Dinos starts Friday evening under the lights of McMahon Stadium as the women’s rugby team hosts Alberta for a 6 p.m. showdown.
The Battle of Alberta is a rematch of the season opener — a 43-12 win by the Pandas in Edmonton. Victoria Okeke and Danyka LaBelle each scored tries for the Dinos.
Four-time Canada West Coach of the Year Simon Chi has a young squad this season but has already seen improvement.
The schedule ramps up for Calgary going forward, playing three games in a nine-day span, starting with their final regular-season home game on Saturday, Sept. 21 at 7 p.m. against Lethbridge.
Dinos football
One week after a big road win, the Dinos (1-1) will try to replicate that performance as they head to Saskatoon for a contest against the Saskatchewan Huskies on Friday at 7 p.m.
The Dinos notched the first win of the Ryan Sheahan era in a big way last weekend, knocking off provincial rival Alberta at the Golden Bears’ homecoming. The Dinos fell behind early only to see their defence take over, scoring three defensive touchdowns in the first half. Vince Triumbari added five field goals as the Dinos handed the fifth-ranked Golden Bears their first loss of the season.
The attention now turns to Saskatchewan, where the Huskies have started the season a surprising 0-2 after losses to Manitoba (37-24) and Regina (33-28). Despite their record, there’s plenty for the Huskies to hang their hat on, especially the play of quarterback Anton Amundrud, who leads Canada West with four passing touchdowns and just under 300 yards passing per game.
Last year, Calgary and Saskatchewan split their head-to-head series, with each team winning on the road.
Dinos Men’s Soccer
The men’s soccer program continues its four-game road swing this weekend with a pair of games in British Columbia. It all starts Friday night with a trip to Prince George to take on UNBC at 8:30 p.m. MT. The Dinos will then to travel to Kelowna to take on the UBC-Okanagan Heat at 1 p.m. MT Sunday.
The Dinos (2-1-2) picked up a big 2-0 road win at MacEwan last weekend to stay in the top half of the Canada West Prairie Division. Jacob Hunter and Gianmarco Plenzik each found the back of the net in the victory.
It’s been a tough start to the season for UNBC, sitting at 0-4-2 through the first three weeks. The Timberwolves have been outscored 12-2 thus far, but did earn a 1-1 draw with UBCO last time out.
Meanwhile, the Heat hold a 2-2-2 record and sit in fourth place in the tight Pacific Division. Third-year goalkeeper Ronan Woodroffe already has 29 saves to his name this season — second only in the conference to UNBC’s Logan Pierce.
The Dinos don’t have much history with either of this weekend’s opponents, holding a 4-1 record against UNBC and having played the Heat just three times — most recently a 1-0 win in Calgary back in 2019.
Dinos Women’s Soccer
After a smashing start to the 2024 campaign at home with two lopsided wins, the Dinos women’s soccer team hits the road this weekend for a pair of games in Edmonton. Saturday sees the Dinos take on MacEwan at noon before squaring off against Alberta 24 hours later.
The Dinos have racked up a whopping 18 goals and 17 assists in their two wins to start the year — more than double the totals of the next closest Canada West program in the early going. A total of 11 different players found the back of the net as the Dinos flexed their depth in shutting out Winnipeg 10-0 and defeating Manitoba 8-2.
MacEwan has been one of the Dinos’ biggest rivals of late and this season figures to be no different. The Griffins opened the year with a 2-2 draw with Saskatchewan after the Huskies found the equalizer in stoppage time, before scoring three first-half goals to cruise to a 3-0 win over Regina.
Meanwhile, the Pandas started 2024 with losses to Regina (2-1) and Saskatchewan (2-0).
Calgary holds a 9-2-1 all-time record over MacEwan while the Battle of Alberta has gone the way of the Dinos in six of the last seven regular-season matchups.
Dinos Women’s Field Hockey
It’s the last home weekend for the Dinos; field hockey squad, welcoming UBC to Hawkings Field for games both Saturday and Sunday — both starting at 11 a.m.
Last weekend marked the season opener for field hockey. where this year’s youthful Calgary team dropped a pair of decisions to reigning champs Victoria.
The Thunderbirds have a new head coach as they start the new season, with this weekend’s action marking their season opener. Geoff Matthews takes over a program that went 3-4-1 a season ago.
Last year, Calgary and UBC technically split their season series. The T-Birds went 1-0-1 in Calgary but those results were later credited to the Dinos after the use of an ineligible player. Calgary then dropped a pair of tight contests (1-0 and 3-0) in Vancouver to close out the 2023 campaign.
Dinos Golf
This weekend also marks the season opener for the Dinos golf team. Calgary will make the drive south to Lethbridge for the two-day Pronghorn Invitational, hosted this year at the Paradise Canyon Golf Resort, starting Sunday.