Ten days ago, the defending two-time champion University of Maine women’s soccer went into its regular season finale needing a win over New Hampshire just to ensure an America East playoff berth.
Now the Black Bears are three-time champs and headed for the NCAA Tournament again!
Fourth seed UMaine overcame a 2-0 deficit to tie second seed Vermont and force overtime in Burlington on Sunday afternoon. After two scoreless extra periods, the game went to penalty kicks. UMaine freshman goalkeeper Elena Barenberg made two saves and the Black Bears triumphed 4-3 in the penalty shootout.
UMaine made all four of its penalty kicks as Meghan Bernetti, Luise Reinwald, Britta Denny and Olivia Grisdale converted from the spot. Vermont had conversions from Amelia Adiutori, Bridget Kennedy and Delia Weir. But Barenberg made saves on Lauren DeGroot and Vanessa Smith.
The Black Bears, who beat top seed Binghamton 1-0 in double overtime on Thursday on Victoria Dungey’s goal, fell behind 2-0 in Sunday’s opening 19 minutes.
UMaine head coach Scott Atherley called his team “resilient and gutsy, and they believe” after the win.
“And if you have those three ingredients within your team, anything is possible,” Atherley said.
Emma Warren’s first goal of the season came just 3:58 into the game with Weir assisting on the goal.
DeGroot’s team-leading eighth of the campaign extended the lead at the 18:32 mark with Kaley Kreutzer earning the assist.
UMaine senior Jordane Pinette, who set up Dungey’s game-winner at Binghamton, cut the lead in half with her third just 10:22 later off a corner kick. Reinwald’s corner kick hit the crossbar and Pinette poked in the rebound.
“They came out and they were all over us for the first 20 minutes and got two goals,” Atherley said. “It took us a little time to settle into the game. I think we were still feeling it from the Binghamton game. Thankfully we got a goal back off a set piece and we got to halftime 2-1. And I thought if we got to halftime 2-1, we’d be in good shape.”
Junior defender Grace Johnson, who is from South Burlington, got the equalizer at the 52:45 mark of the second half with her second of the season.
Reinwald took a corner kick and the ball eventually came to Johnson who drilled it home.
“What a cool story, isn’t it? It’s great,” Atherley said about Johnson getting that pivotal goal close to home. “It was similar to the first goal she scored for us this year. Grace really came on and helped us keep up with their pace on the outside. And then for her to get that ball that came back to her… I’m so thrilled for her.”
Julie Lossius and Reinwald earned assists.
UMaine nearly won it in the first overtime but Abbey Thornton from Windham hit the left post.
Barenberg finished with six saves on 15 shot attempts from Vermont while the Catamounts’ America East Goalkeeper of the Year Kylee Carafoli finished with eight saves on 17 UMaine shot attempts.
Atherley said Barenberg came up with a couple of “miraculous saves” before the penalty kick shootout including a breakaway stop off DeGroot.
He added that Carafoli also came up with some great stops for Vermont.
UMaine is now 6-7-4 while UVM ended up 8-4-6.
UMaine avenged a 1-0 loss to Vermont during the regular season at the New Balance Sports Complex in Orono.
