The men’s and women’s soccer teams are back in action after a successful 2013 season.

Both teams scheduled practices to begin on Aug. 8 as well as playing some pre-season exhibition games.

The Huskies men’s team won the Prairie Division of Canada West with an 8–5–2 regular season record and moved through playoffs seamlessly where they would advance to the Canada West Championship. Unfortunately, the Dogs fell to national champions, the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds.

Nationals were up next for the squad, where they lost a heartbreaker 2–1 in overtime to the University of New Brunswick  Reds in the quarter-finals. The Dogs would rebound and defeat the Ryerson University Rams on penalty kicks before dropping the fifth place game to the Université de Montréal Carabins.

Head coach Bryce Chapman has been pleased with what he has seen so far.

“Camp has been really good, the team has been focused on the details that will make us stronger as the season approaches,” Chapman said.

The 2014 edition of the team took on the University of Simon Fraser Clan on Aug. 22 and 24 in a pair of exhibition games. The Huskies lost both games but Chapman wasn’t concerned with the final score.

“I was pleased with the performances at SFU,” Chapman said. “Obviously the results were not in our favour but we were managing minutes, still putting pieces together and we came up a quality side.”

The women’s team will also participate in pre-season festivities. They host the Medicine Hat College Rattlers on Aug. 30 and 31.

Coming off a fifth place finish in Canada West, the women’s team will look to build on the momentum they established last fall. They finished the regular season with an 8–2–2 record. They scored 21 goals in those 12 games and allowed only six.

The Dogs lost out in the quarterfinals by a score of 2–0 to the Trinity Western Spartans, who would go on to be national champions.

This season the team will see fresh faces as Jerson Barandica-Hamilton and Janine Harding enter as co-coaches for the women’s team. Meanwhile Bryce Chapman took over the role as as director for the soccer programs, but will also continue to coach the men’s team.

On Sept. 5 the women are on the road to play the University of Winnipeg Wesmen. The men will play their first game at home, on Sept. 6 against the University of Calgary Dinos.