The University of Maine’s women’s soccer team captured its first ever America East regular season championship this season, a year after it claimed its initial America East tournament championship to earn its first-ever trip to the NCAA Tournament.
The Black Bears beat UMass Lowell 3-2 in double overtime in last year’s tourney final and the surging River Hawks will return to Orono for Thursday’s 6 p.m. semifinal at Mahaney Diamond.
UMaine is 11-1-3 overall and went 7-0-1 in league play to earn the top seed while fourth seed UMass Lowell is 6-9-3 after going 4-3-1 in America East regular season play.
But the River Hawks are unbeaten in their last six games (5-0-1) including a 2-1 win over Bryant in the quarterfinals. Four of the five wins were shutouts.
UMaine brings a 10-game unbeaten streak (9-0-1) into the contest and has a 25-game unbeaten skein (15-0-10) at Mahaney Diamond.
“UMass Lowell is similar to last year. They started slow, got better and are hitting their best form now,” said UMaine head coach Scott Atherley. “They really work to get set pieces. We have to be really organized to defend their set pieces.
“We have to be aggressive on the press and transition quickly,” he added.
The Black Bears placed three players on the All-America East first team and four more on the second team.
Senior striker and leading scorer Abby Kraemer, who has six goals and four assists; graduate student midfielder Kristina Kelly from Lincolnville (3 & 5) and senior back Myla Schneider (0 & 1) were first team selections with the second teamers being junior striker Jordane Pinette (5 & 2), senior midfielder Lara Kirkby (4 & 2), senior back Anna Phillips (1 & 0) and graduate student back Emma Schneider (no points).
For the second straight year, Atherley and his staff were named the America East coaching staff of the year. Liis Abbott is the associate head coach, Yuri Nascimento is an assistant coach and Doireann Fahey is a graduate assistant.
“We’re a well-balanced team with a lot of great players,” said Atherley. “The players have made us look real good.”
UMass Lowell has been led by All-America East second team forward Calliste Brookshire (4 & 6), senior forward Hope Santaniello (3 & 1), All-AE second team junior back Hilary Jaen (2 & 2) and All-AE Rookie Team selections forward Gaby Eckroth (2 & 2) and defender Nuala Rodgers (no points).
The goalkeeper matchup will feature graduate students Jessica Kasacek from UMaine (10-1-3 record, 0.86 goals-against average, .692 save percentage, 6 shutouts) against UMass Lowell’s Taylor Burgess (6-8-2, 1.44, .826, 5 shutouts).
