Emma Schneider remembers her first season at the University of Maine.
The soccer fullback had transferred to UMaine from Florida Gulf Coast University to join her sister, Myla.
It was 2022 and the Black Bears were picked to finish eighth in the America East preseason coaches poll.
UMaine hadn’t qualified for the America East Tournament since 2016 and was coming off a campaign in 2021 in which the Black Bears went 3-7-4 overall and 1-6-2 in conference play.
In 2022, not only did UMaine earn the third seed for the America East Tournament, the Black Bears went undefeated in league play (4-0-4) and beat the New Jersey Institute of Technology 4-1 in the quarterfinals before losing to New Hampshire 2-1 in the semifinals.
Last year, they captured their first ever America East Tournament championship to earn an inaugural NCAA Tournament berth.
UMaine, 10-1-2 overall, 6-0 in conference play and winner of a school-record eight straight games, can clinch the regular season title on Sunday afternoon when it hosts NJIT in a Seniors Day game at Mahaney Diamond beginning at 1 p.m.
UMaine needs to better New Hampshire’s result at the University of Maryland Baltimore County to claim the outright title.
UNH is 5-1 in the conference and 10-3-1 overall.
UMaine and UNH conclude the regular season against each other in Durham, N.H. at 7 p.m. on Thursday. Both have already clinched a first or second seed and quarterfinal round bye.
UMaine is the first team to start conference play with six straight wins since Boston University in 2012.
It also owns the America East record for longest home game unbeaten streak at 24 (15-0-9) in all games.
“It’s really neat to go from underdogs, with nobody expecting us to do much my first season here, to winning it last year and hopefully repeating that again this year. It’s really special,” said Schneider, one of the tri-captains.
UMaine will enter the NJIT game ranked 24th in the country in the TopDrawerSoccer poll.
The Black Bears are the only team from the northeast ranked in the top 25.
“It’s really nice to get that accolade but, at the end of the day, we have our eyes on the prize which is the championship,” said senior midfielder and tri-captain Lara Kirkby, who scored two goals against UMass Lowell in the final last year including the double overtime game-winner and was chosen the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.
NJIT is 3-10-2 overall and 0-5-1 in the conference and will miss the playoffs.
Eleven seniors and graduate students will be honored in a pre-game ceremony.
They include the Kraemer sisters, Kayla and Abby, and the Schneider sisters, Emma and Myla, Jessica Kasacek, Lincolnville’s Kristina Kelly, Kirkby, Anna Phillips, Olivia Bammel, Elle Vermilya and Tegan Morrison.
Myla Schneider is the other tri-captain.
UMaine head coach Scott Atherley said they are all “quality players who have also brought a lot of leadership to our program. They are a big reason our culture is what it is. They are competitive and committed.
“They have done the work necessary to have the type of team that we have,” he added.
Atherley said one of the most satisfying aspects of the season so far is the fact “everybody is giving us their best shot. We aren’t sneaking up on anybody (like we did in 2022). That motivates our team.”
Schneider said they didn’t have a perfect season last year with a regular season loss to UMass Lowell and other bumps along the way.
“We have a more experienced team this year,” said Kirkby. “We lost a couple of players and gained a couple of players. But the core group is still here and we’re growing every single day and improving constantly. We have that experience from the NCAAs and the championship and learned from that and are applying those lessons this year.”
Abby Kraemer (5 goals, 4 assists), Jordane Pinette (5 & 2) and Kelly (3 & 4) are UMaine’s leading scorers. All of Pinette’s goals have been game-winners which ties her for fourth in the country among players from 339 Division I schools.
Kasacek has an 0.83 goals-against average and a .706 save percentage to go with a 9-1-2 record.
Briana Andreoli (3 & 2) and Kelsey Ramos (3 & 1) are the Highlanders’ leading scorers and Mojisola Ayodele (1-4-1, 1.50, .710) and Samantha Constantine (2-6-1, 1.33, .707) have each seen time in goal.
NJIT is 0-9-1 in its last 10 games.
