ORONO, Maine — The University of Maine women’s soccer team set an America East record by extending its home unbeaten streak to 23 games by virtue of a hard-fought 1-0 win over UMass Lowell on Thursday in a rematch of last year’s America East championship game, which was won by UMaine.
Senior striker Abby Kraemer’s goal 10:34 into the second half decided it as UMaine is now 14-0-9 in its last 23 home games dating back to a 1-1 double overtime tie with Hartford on Oct. 24, 2021. That followed a 1-0 home loss to New Hampshire 10 days earlier.
The Black Bears broke the previous home unbeaten streak of 22 set by Hartford from Oct. 30,1996-Oct. 3, 1999).
It was UMaine’s fifth consecutive win, and the Black Bears improved to 7-1-2 overall, 3-0 in America East.
The loss was UMass-Lowell’s fifth in a row with the last four all coming by one goal.
The River Hawks are now winless in their last nine games (0-7-2), and they fell to 1-8-2 overall and 0-2 in the conference.
It was a physical affair that bordered on chippy with the teams combining for three yellow cards and 32 fouls, 16 for each team.
UMaine had the lion’s share of possession and had 17 shot attempts to UML’s four with a 9-1 edge in shots on goal.
UMaine also had an edge in corner kicks, 8-4.
The Black Bears were dominant in the first half and had two glorious chances.
Emma Schneider rattled a shot off the crossbar during a wild flurry in the UML penalty box, and UMass Lowell graduate student goalkeeper Taylor Burgess made a terrific desperation save with a full lunge as the ball pinballed toward her goal.
She swatted it away with her right hand just before it crossed the goal line.
But the Black Bears got the goal they needed early in the second half.
Lincolnville’s Kristina Kelly won the ball in the midfield and slid it to Lara Kirkby, who slipped it to Kraemer at the top of the penalty box.
Kraemer was able to spin to her left to get separation from a UMass Lowell defender and hit a perfectly placed left-footed shot inside the far post to Burgess’ left.
“I’ve been practicing those kinds of shots lately,” said Kraemer, the reigning America East Striker of the Year who became the program’s first All-American when she scored 13 goals in 2023. “I didn’t really think about [the shot]. I just turned and took a quick shot to the corner.”
It was her third goal of the campaign.
The desperate River Hawks had two good chances to equalize.
A River Hawk forward raced onto the ball and tapped it under onrushing UMaine goalie Jessica Kasacek.
But backs Anna Phillips and Myla Schneider bailed her out by converging on the River Hawk and preventing her from slotting the ball home.
“They did a great job covering for me,” said Kasacek, who finished with one save.
With five minutes remaining, River Hawk Laura Cetina was able to get between two Black Bear defenders but her half-volley from 10 yards out sailed over the crossbar.
The River Hawks also launched a few free kicks into the penalty area, but Kasacek and her teammates dealt with them well and cleared them out of danger.
“We did real well as a team,” senior center back and University of Oregon transfer Phillips said. “We organized real well on the free kicks. We knew they were going to go long so we knew we had to win those first and second balls. We did a great job winning balls in the air.”
UMaine head coach Scott Atherley said Phillips won a lot of balls in the air and his team had the decided edge in possession “because we won the first and second balls.”
“It was a dogfight. It was a repeat of last year’s final,” UML coach Mira Novak said. “We aren’t going to get anything free here. I was proud of my players and how they fought.
Both teams will hit the road for conference games on Sunday with UMaine visiting Bryant (Rhode Island) for a 1 p.m. contest and UMass Lowell going to Albany for a 4 p.m. contest.
