The University of Maine women’s soccer team advanced to a second straight America East Championship game after a dominating 2-0 win over UMass Lowell on Nov. 7 at Orono’s Mahaney Diamond.
The atmosphere was brought to life quickly as graduate student forward Kayla Kraemer scored just five minutes into the game from a cross by graduate student defender Emma Schneider. This set the tone for the rest of the match as UMass Lowell was stuck to defend in their own half the rest of the game, with only five shots compared to Maine’s 16. To add to the score, second-year midfielder Abbey Thornton put the ball in the back of the net in the 69th minute, assisted by third-year forward Gillian Rovers’ pass from the right wing, making it her first career assist to secure the win.
The Black Bears now hold a record of 12-1-3 overall and went 7-0-1 in America East play to earn their first-ever regular season title and No.1 seed in program history. With this statistic, they were able to bypass the quarterfinals to go straight to the semifinals. Along with this record, Maine has only given up 24 shots on target in America East play, which is the lowest total by a conference squad since 2016.
UMaine has also been named 2024 America East coaching staff of the year, making it the second straight year that head coach Scott Atherley and associate head coach Liis Abbott have won this accolade. It wouldn’t have been accomplished without the new additions to the staff, assistant coach Yuri Nascimento and graduate assistant Doireann Fahey. All four of these coaches have been monumental in this record-setting season.
To add to the accolades, fourth-year forward Abby Kraemer continues to lead the team in points, with graduate student midfielder Kristina Kelly, fourth-year midfielder Lara Kirkby, third-year forward Jordane Pinette, and Kayla Kraemer trailing behind, all of them hitting double digits. This makes Maine the first America East team to have five players with at least 10 points each.
The No. 1 seed Black Bears are now set to host the America East Championship game at 3 p.m. on Sunday Nov. 10 at Mahaney Diamond. Maine will face the No. 2 seed University of New Hampshire after they defeated Binghamton 3-1 in the semi-final game. This will be the first-ever championship game between the two rivals, ensuring it to be a hard-fought and passionate game with everything on the line in this border battle. The America East Championship match is a must-win game in order to secure a spot in the NCAA tournament.
With the quick turnaround between games, the team has been focused on rest, recovery and resetting their mindset to focus on a new opponent.
