Season Preview: Women’s soccer charging into the 2025 soccer season

There will be no shortage of experience for the Lethbridge Polytechnic Kodiaks women as they prepare to open their Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) regular season this weekend.

"There's lots of positives within the group," said Kodiaks head coach Mike Racz. "Right now there's only one first-year player, the rest are all either returning players or university players who have come from another institution.

"All of the players, with the exception of the first-year player, have played post-secondary soccer at some level. We have several players who are in their last year."

Racz is familiar with several of his players as he has worked with them since youth soccer including Abby Leusink (third year, General Studies – Psychology/Sociology, Picture Butte) and the Jankowiak sisters Khloe (third year, Business Administration – Accounting, Lethbridge) and Kiara (third year, General Arts and Science, Lethbridge).

"Khloe is our engine in the middle and Ki is our goalkeeper, she's one of the best goalkeepers in the league who doesn't usually get credit for that," said Racz. "Megan Morrison (fifth year, Bachelor of Nursing, Medicine Hat), who played a big role for us in both outdoor and futsal last year, is also back. She's who we will be leaning on for her experience."

Key newcomers include Brooke Barcelona (fifth year, Bachelor of Nursing, Kelowna, B.C.) who has moved over from the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns. Brittany Brown (third year, General Arts and Science, Lethbridge), has also played at the university level while Cassandra Evans (second year, Business Administration – Accounting), Swift Current, Sask.) will also provide experience.

While having a wealth of experience is nice, it does come at a price, noted Racz.

"It would be nice to have more first-year players coming in, players who would continue the program and continue the success that we've had. Looking to the future I'm hoping we can target a few LFC (Lethbridge Football Club) players and get that Lethbridge core that we had in the past back. When we've really had success it's through a group of Lethbridge players.

"I would like to see the youth coming through, sustaining the program."

The Kodiaks are coming off a solid season in 2024 where they posted an 8-4-0 record for third place in the ACAC South Division. However, they were defeated 5-1 by Keyano College in the quarter-finals of the ACAC Championship.

"In the last weekend of the regular season we lost our second-place spot and ended up third. It made the draw in playoffs quite a bit more challenging. The North had some good teams and Keyano, they're typically a team that's pretty strong. We met them instead of Grande Prairie, who was hosting. That made the weekend a lot more difficult for us."

Kodiaks open their ACAC regular season at home this weekend at home against the Olds College Broncos Saturday at 2 p.m., followed by Red Deer Polytechnic Queens Sunday at noon. Both games will be at the Servus Sports Centre field.

Kodiaks will be relying on their defensive strength to carry them this season, which will conclude with them hosting the ACAC Championships Oct. 23-26.

"Defensively we're going to be strong," said Racz. "That's where the core of our experience lies. We've been kind of creative with the positions the girls play in where some of them are playing out of position a little bit more.

"Kyra Piekema was kind of our lead striker last year and she's gone so we're going to have to rely on other people to play in that top position. That's a key position for creating goals for teams. We're going to need some other girls to step up and put the ball in the back of the net."