The Seawolves soccer squads finally return home after playing their first three games on the road. With the home openers this weekend we thought a season preview as well as recap from the start was in order.
Men’s team looks to bounce back from last season
After a disappointing year last season the UNB Saint John Men’s team is looking to make up some ground this year after what was a building year for the program.
Having already played three games away so far, the Men stand with one 4-0 shutout win against St. Thomas University, and two respectable losses, 0 – 1 loss against Mount Saint Vincent University, and the other a 1 – 3 against the University of King’s College.
Despite the current losing record, coach David Vincente is optimistic about the upcoming games.
“I think the team is improving from the first weekend to now, we’ve made some adjustments and allowed the team to play better due to the positions they’re playing now, we changed the formation up, so I think going forward we’re going to be playing very well.” says Vincente.
There’s also lots of hype surrounding the return of MacKenzie Tamblyn, who already scored a hat-trick last Sunday against St. Thomas.
“He’s our big goal scoring threat, and now we paired him up with Alex Allison, so now we have two attacking players up front so they can’t just focus on (defending) MacKenzie, because he does get a lot of attention.” Vincente explains.
His teammates are also excited to see where MacKenzie can bring the team this year.
“He makes an impact every time he steps on the pitch, brings a good presence, kind of keeps everyone in check. He’s good with the ball, and makes the opposition pretty scared to play against him to be honest,” says Alec Fisher, a new addition to the squad this year coming from the United Kingdom.
You can watch Tamblyn and the rest of the Seawolves play this weekend at the Canada Games Stadium on Saturday against the Dalhousie Agricultural Campus Rams at 4pm, and again on Sunday at 2pm against the Holland College Hurricanes.
Women look to improve on last year’s playoff performance
The Women have had a slow start this season, with a 5 – 0 loss to Mount Saint Vincent University followed by a 3 – 1 loss against the University of King’s College.
The following weekend, the Seawolves travelled to Fredericton to take on the St. Thomas Tommies in a classic rival matchup that was ended in a 2 – 2 draw.
Even though the wolves have yet to pull off a victory this season, the team remains confident and determined to improve on last year’s building process.
“We always set the goal at least to be in the playoffs, we think this team is more than capable of getting in despite the way things have went the first few games.” says head coach Robert Mather.
The squad faces a new challenge this season taking on two new goalies after both keepers could not return. Nevertheless, coach Rob spoke quite positive when describing his new starting goaltender.
“It’s always a bit of a transition, and both goalies were important parts of our team last year, but I think our new goalies Laiken (Fox) and Chandler (Hofstra) have shown a lot so far, they give us a lot of confidence going forward.”
In terms of offence and defence, the team is looking promising, with the return of key players like Kaitlin Casey on the centre-back, and forward Lauren Coyle on the attack.
With all those factors in place, the women’s varsity soccer team has definitely become the team to watch in terms of suspense.
Be sure to support your fellow wolves and classmates this weekend with a full stadium and loud cheers, because this season could be like no other.
The Women also play two games this weekend at the Canada Games Stadium. Saturday at 2pm versus the Dalhousie Agricultural Campus Rams and on Sunday at 12pm against the current 1st place Holland College Hurricanes.