(Halifax, N.S.) - Dalhousie Tigers head coach Cindy Tye is pleased to welcome Jordan Smith, Maya Venkataraman, Paige Jamieson and Sydney Kenney to the Tigers for the 2016-17 season.

Smith, a midfielder from Surrey, B.C., joins the Tigers after three season with the Fusion Football Club of the BC Premier Soccer League. Last year’s Elgin Park Secondary School’s soccer MVP, Smith is an honour roll student who will begin her degree in Recreation Therapy this fall.

“I’m excited to move across the country to a place I have found to be so friendly,” says Smith. “Dalhousie is a perfect fit for me both athletically and academically.”

Another midfielder and British Columbian import, Maya Venkataraman played her club soccer with the Thompson Okanagan Football Club. A Principal’s List student, Venkataraman won four academic awards on her way to being earning Summerland Secondary School’s Verrier Award as the top grade 12 student last year. A resident of Summerland, B.C., she will begin her studies in Medical Sciences in September.

“I am very excited to be a Dalhousie Tiger,” says Venkataraman. “I’m looking forward to the upcoming season.”

A native of Calgary, A.B., Paige Jamieson, helped lead the Calgary SWU Premiers 98 to five consecutive provincial championships while collecting two silver and two bronze national championship medals. An honour roll student, she’ll begin her Bachelor of Science this fall.

“I’m looking forward to playing with a group of great players,” says Jamieson. “I’m also looking forward to living by the ocean in such a beautiful city.”

Rounding out the group is Halifax, N.S. native Sydney Kenney. Kenney joins the Tigers after two provincial championship seasons with the Dunbrack U18 Tier 1 team that included fourth and fifth place national championship finishes. A Principal’s List student, Kenney is enrolled in Dalhousie’s Science program.

“I am very excited to be coming to Dalhousie,” says Kenney. “It’s going to be a great season!”

First-year head coach Cindy Tye sees the upcoming season as a measuring stick to create a baseline of where the team is and what they’ll need to do to get to where they want to be.

“The team has and will continue to have a lot of youth moving into this season,” says Tye. “We will rely on our more senior players to set the standard for the program moving forward. We will look to our youth to take on that challenge and make sure they push for our program to move back towards the top of the league.”

After missing the playoffs last season, the Tigers are eager to start fresh this season and will play their first home game Saturday, September 17, 2016.