Cougars women’s soccer season starts with nine away games

A new season is underway for the University of Regina women’s soccer team.

The Cougars finished last season with a record of 4-7-5, and fell to the University of British Columbia in the Canada West quarterfinal. This year, head coach Astrid Baecker said she hopes to see her team win more of the close-scoring games this year, and wants to offer plenty of exciting soccer for the fans.

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“Our expectations is that we get those on-field results that we’ve been hunting for the last couple of years,” said Baecker.

“We’ve left a lot of ties on the field that we want to turn into wins.”

The team starts its season on the road in Calgary, taking on Mount Royal University on Thursday night.

The team starts its season with nine straight road games, but Baecker said she doesn’t mind.

“Part of our culture is we love road trips. We love these grinding trips throughout the preseason,” said Baecker.

“It’s something to look forward to. It’s good team bonding. It’s almost like we’re able to take the players away, put them in a training camp environment with that competition piece, and put them in a little bubble and just have them hyper-focused on what we’re trying to do.”

The team has had to endure the scorching summer heat during recent practices, and Baecker said the athletes’ health is top of mind for the coaching staff.

“We put a lot of emphasis on injury prevention planning,” said Baecker.

“We incorporate the FIFA 11 into all of our warm ups. We have our strength and conditioning coaches actively involved in our sessions and making sure that our athletes are taken care of.”

Baecker and the Cougars won’t be taking a page out of the Canadian women’s national team book and flying any drones, but she said they do like to watch film on their opponents to better understand their style of play ahead of games.

“We put a lot of emphasis on injury prevention planning,” said Baecker.

“We incorporate the FIFA 11 into all of our warm ups. We have our strength and conditioning coaches actively involved in our sessions and making sure that our athletes are taken care of.”

Baecker and the Cougars won’t be taking a page out of the Canadian women’s national team book and flying any drones, but she said they do like to watch film on their opponents to better understand their style of play ahead of games.

“Jennie Waldner is our individual and team performance analyst. She spends a lot of time going through video. CanWest Live or CanWest TV is normally where we get our video from, and we do try to understand and incorporate what our opponents are going to do into our training environment. That’s just setting up the players for success. But not resorting to drones at this time,” joked Baecker.

With the announcement of the Northern Super League, a new professional women’s soccer league in Canada, Baecker said more players are hoping to continue playing soccer once their university careers are over.

“A lot of these players are motivated to see what that next level of soccer looks like,” the coach said.

“And I think now that there’s the domestic pro league and the infrastructure around it, we’re going to see more players that are going to put that on their goals and are going to look to achieve that.”

Baecker said she hopes more fans will come out and support her team through the 2024 season.

“We are working so hard to put an exciting brand of soccer on this turf. We have tied our goal-scoring record the last two years. We continually are scoring goals. We’re continually just doing really great things that create a good atmosphere. We have little giveaways at the front. We have halftime fun. There’s opportunities to meet the players,” said Baecker.

Baecker said the team has an event planned for this year’s home opener, set for noon on September 7.

“You can come out at 10:00 a.m. You can have waffles, you can play on bouncy castles, small-sided games. It’s a very family-friendly event,” said Baecker.

Baecker said it’s a $5 entry fee for the “Kickoff” event, which includes breakfast and a ticket for the game.