It's another busy weekend on campus, as the football and soccer teams welcome Calgary, Saskatchewan and Regina to town. It's also homecoming week, with UM's annual tradition featuring an exciting lineup of on-campus and virtual events from September 21-14. Both alumni and staff can get free tickets to the football and soccer games using promo codes UMALUMNI22 and UMSTAFF22. Events are open to all, so check out the full schedule for Homecoming 2022 and register now. 

Golf is also on the road this weekend, as Trent Robertson (who finished second at the Lethbridge Invitational last weekend) and company will head Minnesota for the Twin Cities Classic. Others making the trip are Cole Peters, Stefan Lavallee, Connor Stewart, Brent Ingram, Nic Fanning and Lachlan Allerton. Additionally, men's hockey plays host to Lakehead and Regina in pre-season action at The RINK Training Centre. Women's hockey also travels to the states, while women's volleyball takes to Regina for their first pre-season tournament. 

Soccer hosts Saskatchewan and Regina at IGF
With four weeks left of regular season play, Manitoba is right in the hunt for a top two spot in Canada West's Prairie Division. Just three points separates top-ranked MacEwan (4-2-0) from the Herd (3-3-0), meaning that there's plenty at stake this weekend. 

Both of Manitoba's games take place at 7:30 pm at IG Field, beginning on Friday against Saskatchewan, a team that's tied with the Bisons in points entering this weekend. The two teams met to begin the regular season, with Manitoba coming out with a 1-0 win in a game that featured a one-hour weather delay. It was also the Herd's first road victory against the green dogs since 2008. 

The lone goal-scorer in the contest was Bianca Cavalcanti, who enters Friday's action with 12 goals in 15 career regular season conference games, and is also tied for the team lead with three tallies. Look for her to use her speed down the flanks to yet again cause problems for the Huskies back line. Another name to keep an eye out for is central midfielder Chloe Morin. An excellent distributor, she scored her first U SPORTS goal two weeks ago against UNBC and has played at least 40 minutes in each of the last three games. 

Leading the way for the Huskies attack will be Alyssa D'Agnone, who is third in the conference with five goals. She also led all players in the team's first game against each other with three shots, two of which were on goal. She and Taryn Izsak have combined for nine goals this year, but will have to deal with a Manitoba defence that's fourth in the conference, having allowed just nine goals all season. The likes of Dalima Chhibber, Rebecca Waterman, Shannon Lee, Breyanna Johnston-Krulicki and Tabata Bravo will look to make it two matches in a row with a clean sheet against the U of S. 

On Saturday, Manitoba welcomes Regina to IGF for the back half of homecoming, which starts at 2 pm with the football team. The Cougars are 0-3-3 on the year, including a 3-1 loss to the Bisons in the opening weekend of the campaign, however they have scored at least once in every game minus one. 

Manitoba blew things wide open against the Cougars in the second half of a game that was tied at one in the 16th minute prior to rain forcing the rest of the game to be rescheduled to two days later. Johnston-Krulicki scored her first two career U SPORTS goals during play and led all players with four shots on goal. Look for her to once again force pressure and create scoring opportunities for her side. Captain Jessica Tsai, who had two shots on net and led the team in that category a year ago, will also be a player to keep an eye on offensively. 

The Cougars have six Winnipeg natives on their roster, many of whom know their opponents on the Bisons well. Perhaps the best example is dangerous scorer Peyton Enns, who has two tallies on the season, as well as seven shots and a goal in four prior meetings against Manitoba. She'll need to be marked well, along with Taylor Bubnick, who leads the team with three goals. 

Starting in net for the Bisons will be veteran Karina Bagi, who picked up both wins against Manitoba's prairie-based opponents to start the season. She's allowed just four goals all year and her save percentage of .833 is also fourth in the conference. 



Manitoba welcomes Calgary for homecoming game on Saturday at 2 pm 
Homecoming is always a memorable experience for the players, fans and alumni and this year will be no different. The 1962 iteration of the Bisons will be honoured during the game. They're well-known as the team that helped revive the football program, which had been dormant since 1948. Eight years later, the Herd won the first of back-to-back national championships, with the '62 team serving as the base for the modern day Bisons. Click here for more details on the '62 team. 

On the field, Manitoba (1-2) will host the Calgary Dinos (0-3), a team they've won two of their last three games against. The most recent contest between the two sides was last season, where Manitoba came back from 20-2 down in the third quarter to win 28-20. 

A major storyline in the Bisons' home win last year was the run game. As a team, Manitoba rushed for 233 yards on the ground, however they're facing a Dinos team this year that's second in the nation, allowing just 80 rushing yards per contest. The likes of linebackers Daniel Flanagan, Subomi Oyesoro and Liam Reid, who've combined for 41.5 tackles, will look to ground a Manitoba rushing attack that includes Breydon Stubbs, Vaughan Lloyd and Noah Anderson. Stubbs and Lloyd are averaging 5.4 and 4.6 yards per carry, respectively. 

On the other end of things is Calgary's pass defence, which is allowing 327 yards per game, the most of any team in the nation. They'll need to be on the ball against Manitoba, who've embodied a success by committee approach through the air. 

A total of 11 different players have caught at least one pass this season, including Zachary Wynne and Ishe Matanga, who both recorded their first career U SPORTS touchdowns in Manitoba's 21-16 victory over the UBC Thunderbirds last weekend. Leading the way for the Bisons is AK Gassama, whose 230 receiving yards is fifth in the conference. The Dinos have been paced by Gob Deng, who is tied for sixth with 205 receiving yards. 

Defensively for Manitoba, weak side linebacker Dolan Hills will look for a repeat performance from last week, where he set a career high with ten tackles. Starting in place of All-Canadian Nick Thomas for the remainder of the regular season, Hills was all over the place on defence and special teams for a Bisons team that didn't surrender a major against UBC last weekend. 

HOOPPRINTS

• After completing 14 passes last weekend, Bisons fifth-year quarterback Des Catellier cracked the top 20 all-time in conference completions, with 445. 
• Manitoba's nine pass breakups last weekend marked the third time over the last two seasons that they've recorded at least eight PBUs in a game. 
• As a team, Manitoba is averaging 22 first downs per game, good for seventh in Canada.