Since graduating in May, Phillips has joined 11th year coach Scott Atherley’s staff to assist freshman keeper Meagan Price-Leibenzeder, the emerging starter ahead of junior Elizabeth Deletetsky and freshman Iris Gunnarsdottir.

“Very high standards to live up to,” Price-Leibenzeder said of Phillips. “She’s a great coach, great person. I’m not going to try and beat her. I just do my best. Everyone’s been pretty accepting.”

Price-Leibenzeder and the Black Bears are four games into their quest to return to the America East Conference Tournament for the seventh consecutive season and in senior captain Cristina Di Ielsi’s mind, even farther.

“I know a lot of us want to win it,” Di Ielsi said. “We’ll take each game one by one and hopefully make it to the playoffs.”

Di Ielsi and senior co-captain Anjelica Hodgson will lead a squad that returns eight of its top ten scorers from the 2008 club that finished 6-6-7 and lost in the America East Tournament semi-finals to NCAA tournament participant Boston University. The Black Bears were selected sixth among the conference’s nine teams in the America East Preseason Coaches’ poll.

“Me and [Di Ielsi] are really looking forward to the challenge this season of bringing the team back to previous glory,” Hodgson said.

Nine listed on the 24-member roster are freshmen, but the youth are complemented with six seniors.

“They [Di Ielsi and Hodgson] have a perspective that’s different than anybody else on our team,” Atherley said. “They understand what it takes. They know what the mentality should be. Our hope is that they’re able to really parlay that to the rest of the team.”

UMaine graduated leading scorer Christine LaBelle (5 goals, 1 assist) and Kim Stephenson (0 and 2), but senior striker-turned-midfielder Laura Martel began the season healthy after missing seven games last season with a knee injury and garnered last week’s America East Player of the Week honors because of a two-goal performance Sunday against Iona in the Black Bears’ home opener.

“What we try to take advantage of with [Martel] is her athleticism,” Atherley said. “If we need to put her up top, we know that if she gets behind somebody, she’s going to cause a lot of problems because of her speed.”

Martel was the team’s fourth leading scorer last year. She tallied all three of her goals in the season opener against Sacred Heart University.

Junior Kelsey Wilson missed four games in 2008 with a quad injury and has returned to form as a defensive midfielder who also takes corner kicks.

“We’re glad to have those two back, and we’re just integrating everybody into the mix, and I’m really happy with our team so far,” Hodgson said.

An experienced core of backs will protect Price-Leibenzeder as she becomes acclimated to playing at the college level. Hodgson, Di Ielsi, and senior Hailey Blackburn were members of the 2006 team that advanced to the America East Tournament Championship Game and were ranked 22nd in the nation. Sophomores Sady Tobin and Kaitlyn MacIsaac saw regular playing time as freshmen.

“[Price-Leibenzeder] is very comfortable for a freshman,” Di Ielsi said. “She is communicating with the team.”

“We do have an experienced group of defenders,” Hodgson added. “We know that we do have a freshman goalkeeper, but we have faith in her, and we’re just doing what we do, day in and day out.”

Up front, sophomore Carolyne Nellis and senior Veronique Fleury, the Black Bears’ second and third leading scorers respectively from last season are joined by junior Hannah Breton and freshman Josee Descoeurs, who has impressed Atherley.

Other freshmen Atherley says have made an immediate impact are midfielders Maddie Hill and Stephanie Frenette-Blais. They will play alongside senior Alli Krous, junior Ashley Diver and sophomore Courtney Harnais.

“[Frenette-Blais] has proven to be very versatile,” Atherley said. “[Hill] is really starting to come into her own and be a threat from midfield going forward, and playing dangerous passes through the midfield.”

The Black Bears (1-2-1) will face three more non-conference opponents before kicking off their conference schedule with a home matchup against the University of Maryland Baltimore County on Sept. 27. UMaine handed Idaho State University just their sixth loss at home in the last four years, and fell short against perennial soccer power Dartmouth College 3-1.

UMaine improved their record on the new season 2-1, while Dartmouth fell to 0-1.

Both teams came out fighting, but UMaine notched the first goal at 6:26 when Courtney Veinotte got one by Dartmouth goalkeeper Meagan Vakiener on an assist by Brittney Cummings.

It wasn’t long before the Black Bears got on the board again when reigning America East Rookie of the Year Kelly Newton passed it off to Jocelyn Mitchell at the corner who knocked it in for a 2-0 lead.

Dartmouth fought back and used a penalty corner to their advantage when Kelly Hood drove one up into the net on the shared assist by Kelly McHenry and Rebecca Sobel. At 23:34, the Big Green tied it up on a breakaway by Meghan Everett.

Just a few minutes later at 26:52, Stephanie Gardiner took a pass from Mitchell down the field where she drove the ball down low to give UMaine the 3-2 lead.

Two penalty corners within the next few minutes resulted in two more Maine goals, both off the stick of Ellen Andrews, to increase the lead to 5-2.

The Big Green fought back and at 40:53 Sobel drove in a pass from Hood to close the gap to 5-3. The UMaine offense continued their attack though and scored twice more at 42:18 and 45:01 by Maire Dineen and Gardiner.

At 51:02, Dartmouth’s Sobel knocked one in off a scramble in front of the goal to once again close the gap to 7-4, but that was the end of the scoring for the Big Green.

UMaine responded with another pair of goals in the final ten minutes of the game, including Mitchell’s second goal of the day, and a Lelia Sacre drive off a corner play to finish off the scoring at 9-4.

Despite what the score might portray, both goalies had their share of great saves: still the Black Bear defense held Dartmouth back, limiting them to only 15 shots on goal, while Fleck saved eight. Vakiener faced a barrage with 41 shots on goal and 23 saves.

UMaine head coach Josette Babineau was pleased by the team’s performance and high score, but was sure that the team didn’t let down.

“I feel like we began to wear on the other team, but they were still explosive, so I wasn’t really comfortable at any point with the score,” she said.

“We are a hard working team, so we play hard from beginning to end,” Mitchell added.

The defense’s aggression was something that also weighed heavily in the game’s outcome.

“That’s definitely the style of play we try to have with the defense, and I think that was the key to the game, we wore them out,” Babineau said.

It’s early in the season for the Black Bears, but not too soon to set their sights to the future and the chance at the America East playoffs.

“I definitely think we have a talented group this year,” Babineau said. “We want to compete in the conference just like any other conference team and set up for a good semifinals game. We are trying to prepare for October for the conference playoffs.”

UMaine senior midfielder Laura Martel’s second and third goals of the young season gave the Black Bears (1-2-1) a one goal advantage in each half, but Iona’s speedy forwards caught UMaine in transition in the minutes immediately following each tally.

“That’s been a trend in all of our games so far,” UMaine junior midfielder Kelsey Wilson said. “I think that’s just a mentality that we have to … once we score, they’re not coming back and especially on our home field.”

Martel found herself in the right spot in traffic on a corner taken by Wilson that was initially headed by sophomore Carolyne Nellis and redirected the ball with a header of her own into the right side of the goal.

“[Nellis] was able to get in there, and I was able to deflect it off the side of my head,” Martel said. “The goalie kind of went the wrong way.”

Wilson took nine corners in the game, while Iona earned just one in each half. UMaine also outshot the Gaels 24-7. Freshman goalkeeper Meagan Price-Leibenzeder made just two saves in the contest for the Black Bears, while Iona’s Suzanne Baldissard stopped six.

“We did have a lot of opportunities,” Wilson said. “It would be nice if we could put probably a few more of those in, but I think that just creating the opportunities is probably a good start right now, and I think the finishing will come when we really do need it — once conference play starts.”

Martel led UMaine with seven shots. Wilson and sophomore striker Courtney Harnais each had four.

“When you statistically have somebody like that, you’ve got to bury them,” UMaine coach Scott Atherley said.

Martel’s goal at 8:30 of the first half was answered 5:05 later by Iona’s Gabriella D’Aprile. Midfielder Lisa Murer made the run to the right corner of the penalty box and centered to striker Carly Villanova, who continued the ball across for D’Aprile to boot it inside the far post.

The Black Bears played more physically in the second half and Martel was able to generate space and get behind Iona’s defense to beat Baldissard to the lower left corner for her second goal in the 71st minute.

“First touch, it couldn’t have gone any better,” Martel said. “It went right off my foot, the goalkeeper came out, I saw a spot and placed the ball right in the back of the net.”

Baldissard made her first start of the season for the Gaels, who struggled to a 1-3 start with seven goals allowed.

Iona’s second response came just 2:17 after Martel’s go-ahead goal. Price-Leibenzeder got in the way of a close range shot by Iona’s Caitlin Steinberg, but could not control the rebound before Mariel Pepe took advantage.

“That’s their style,” Atherley said. “They kind of sit in, they hang in there, and they wait to counter against you and they were effective at it.”

UMaine generated five shots in the second 10-minute overtime period, culminating with a breakaway down the right side of the field by Martel in the final minute that Baldissard intercepted before freshman midfielder Josee Descoeurs could get a foot on the centering pass.

Atherley was disappointed the Black Bears could not hold the lead at home, but emphasized patience is necessary early in the season with a team still unfamiliar with each other. Descoeurs and fellow freshman midfielder Maddie Hill impressed their coach and saw significant time. Descoeurs had a shot on goal.

“I saw some really promising things from some of my new players,” Atherley said. “Probably our biggest deficiency in the game is we fed the keeper. We never eliminated the goalkeeper with our service.”

“There’s things I’m pleased and encouraged about, and there’s other things that we need some work on, as you would expect at this time of year,” Atherley said.

The Black Bears are back on the road for their next two contests, and will return to Alumni Field on Sept. 20 when they host Northeastern University at 1 p.m.

Freshman Taylor Phillips crossed the line first with a time of 16:33. With most top runners on both teams sitting out, the meet became more of a glorified training session for younger competitors.

“This is really just a chance for some of the freshmen to get their feet wet and get used to running in a meet,” senior runner Miles Bartlett said during the race.

Showing early promise despite running at only threshold pace were Phillips and fellow freshman runner Patrick Mullarkey, who took second with 16:36. Veteran Black Bears have pointed to the pair as runners to watch. Neither seem to feel pressured in the wake of excellent first seasons last year by current sophomore runners Riley Masters, Corey Conner and Hilary Maxim.

“It is great that Riley had the success that he did last year,” Mullarkey said. “I just want to run some fast times and contribute to the team in any way possible.”

“The freshmen are doing a great job adjusting [from high school] to college running,” Masters said. “I think they feel a little pressure, but that’s needed for them to do well. They will learn what it takes to be successful at this level very quick.”

The men’s team, led by senior captain Corey Bean, was selected in preseason polls to finish fifth. There are nine teams in the America East conference. Bartlett and Masters were the top two finishers at last year’s conference meet.

After losing Chuck Therriault and Dave Englehutt to graduation, the Black Bears will ask runners like Dave Currier to step in and score points on a more regular basis. Senior runner Chris Harmon, a consistent scorer last season, will sit out the season as he deals with viral meningitis.

On the women’s side, freshmen Whitney Chamberlain and Hope Hopkins took second and third place respectively. Chamberlain crossed the line in 20:41, while Hopkins finished in 21:25.

“I felt like I ran pretty fast, but I definitely had more in me. I can’t wait until an actual meet,” Chamberlain said. “I don’t really feel like there is that much pressure on me to make a contribution right away. I know that I’m only a freshman, and I have a lot of time to improve.”

The women’s team, led by senior captain Brenna Walsh, was picked to finish fifth in the conference as well. They also return their top runners in Conner and Maxim.

After losing their captain Stephanie Jette to graduation, the Black Bears will look to get help from runners like senior Chelsea Leeman and junior Vanessa Letourneau, who scored at several meets last season.

The Black Bears’ next meet will be the America East pre-race in Burlington, Vermont. The meet will give runners a chance to see their competition within the conference for the first time.