After missing the playoffs by one point in each of the past two seasons, the women’s Huskies soccer team looks to benefit from the league’s new playoff structure.

The Canada West women’s soccer league changed its league format after announcing the addition of three new teams this season. The ushering in of Mount Royal University, Winnipeg University and the University of Northern British Columbia to the 2012 soccer schedule has prompted the league to double the number of teams that make playoffs.

Previously only the top four teams after regular season play made the playoffs, and those teams would compete for the championship at a single tournament. The Canada West has now decided that the top eight of the 13 teams in the women’s league will get a chance to compete in the post-season.

The old four-team playoff format has left the Huskies women’s soccer program looking in from the outside for a long time, Huskies head coach Tom Lapointe explained.

“This program has been around for 28 years and no team has ever qualified based on league play.”

In fact, the only women’s soccer team to ever make the playoffs was the team of 1999. That year the U of S hosted the playoff tournament giving the Huskies team an automatic berth into the tournament even though they were not among the top four finishers in the regular season.

“Now that the top eight teams go to playoffs that really helps us to be in contention to play in the post-season,” Lapointe said.

The Dogs coach can see the benefits for his own team, but worries that some clubs will continue to suffer by creating one big league.

“For the competition side of the league there is still going to be a gap between the top teams and the weaker teams.”

The number of league games is also reduced for the women’s squad. Each team will now play each other only once during the regular season for a total of 12 games, two fewer than last season.

The Huskies will start the season on Sept. 8 in Regina without former team captain and Canada West all-time leading scorer Elizabeth Hudon. The Dogs will also have to find a new starting goalkeeper because Marissa Wilford, the starting netminder from last season, has elected to focus on school this year despite having two more years of eligibility.

Even with these two major losses, Lapointe is confident in the returning players and the off-season recruits, including two new strikers with previous Canadian Interuniversity Sport experience in the Atlantic University Sport conference.

Nicholle Morrison, a native of Nova Scotia, previously played with the Cape Breton Capers and won the AUS Championship with the team in 2008 and again in 2010.

Ali Goodman, who played one year with the University of Prince Edward Island Panthers, is originally from Saskatoon and is looking forward to returning home to play for the Huskies.

With five of the team’s six strikers new to the Huskies, veteran midfielder Daniela Fuenzalida, who combined with Hudon last year for the majority of the team’s points, admits the team will miss Hudon’s presence but believes that she will find similar chemistry with the new strikers.

“I love playing with Elizabeth and I think we played really well together, but we have to go on without her,” said Fuenzalida. “We have great strikers now as well, so I think I can play just as good with them.”

The women’s squad has been busy travelling across Canada playing non-conference games, warming up for the season. Looking to challenge themselves among the best, the team headed east in late August and played two teams ranked among the top 10 in the CIS at the end of last season.

The Huskies lost 2-0 to the Wilfred Laurier Golden Hawks but rebounded the next day with a 2-0 victory over McMaster University.

Last weekend the Dogs headed to Calgary and played in the Alberta Cup, an exhibition tournament hosted by Mount Royal University. The team continued to gain confidence, winning their first match 4-0 against Mount Royal and tying their second game with the University of Calgary 1-1.

Lapointe says his team is anxious to start the season and focused on the first game against Regina.

“We want to get a jinx off our back. We’ve always struggled in our first game of league play by either losing or tying. So our goal is to go into Regina and start the season with a win.”

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Photo: Pete Yee