ORONO, Maine —- The University of Maine’s women’s soccer team was looking to bounce back from Friday night’s heartbreaking 2-1 overtime loss to Brown University in Providence against a 2016 NCAA Tournament club in Northeastern University on Sunday at Mahaney Diamond.
But coach Ashley Phillips’ Huskies showed why they were a unanimous choice to defend their Colonial Athletic Association title, parlaying two first-half goals just 3:15 apart from senior forward Carly Wilhelm and a second-half goal credited to senior forward Kayla Cappuzzo into an impressive 3-0 triumph.
The Huskies, now 3-1, dominated possession and kept the Black Bears pinned in their own half most of the game thanks to their exceptional passing, an ability to create separation from their markers and a high tempo style of play.
Northeastern attempted 17 shots to UMaine five, had a 9-3 edge in shots on goal and a 6-1 advantage in corner kicks.
UMaine, which started eight freshmen and sophomores, is now 0-2-1.
“This was definitely our best performance of the year,” said Phillips. “It takes a lot of patience to break Maine down and we were able to do that fairly often. Maine is disciplined and organized and they’re frustrating to play against. They’re young and talented.
“We were also lucky because it may have been a tired game for them after going overtime against Brown on Friday night,” said Phillips, whose Huskies last played on Thursday, a 2-1 loss to Boston University.
UMaine coach Scott Atherley acknowledged that his team was “fatigued” and didn’t have the depth required to upset Northeastern.
“They’re a great team and [Hannah Lopiccolo] and [Cappuzzo] are the best two players we’ll see this year,” said Atherley. “Full credit to them. They were hungry and they have a very talented, deep team.”
Wilhelm opened the scoring 26:44 into the game on a clean break-in off a well-placed through ball from Lizzie George after a pass by UMaine senior midfielder Kendra Ridley was intercepted in the midfield.
“I saw Carly making a run behind so I placed a nice little ball through to her,” said George.
“I saw the gap between the defenders and called for the ball. Lizzie made a great pass and I saw the goalie (Annalena Kriebisch) coming out so I put it far post,” said Wilhelm.
“I lost the ball in the midfield and they countered right away,” said Ridley. “They’re really quick in transition. That made them very hard to defend.”
Moments later, Wilhelm took a pass from Hannah Rosenblatt at the edge of the penalty area, worked herself free and had her shot deflect off a UMaine defender and drop over the head of Kriebisch.
“I was going to serve it but no one was in the box so I took a shot and I got lucky off the deflection,” said Wilhelm.
Northeastern was even more dominant in the second half and Cappuzzo sewed up the win by beating a defender wide down the right flank and slipping a low cross across the goal area that glanced into the goal off the leg of sliding UMaine defender Amy Falkin.
“The pace of the game was probably much faster than any opponent we’ll play this year. Credit to them,” said senior Falkin.
Nathalie Nidetch finished with three saves for NU, including a diving save off Genaya Loftis’ shot from a tough angle in the first half.
Kriebisch wound up with six stops.
Atherley praised the efforts turned in by backs Falkin and freshman Jane Stevens.
On Friday night, UMaine junior back-midfielder Mikayla Morin of South Paris scored her first collegiate goal with a glancing far-post header off Kayla Brace’s corner kick with 13:25 left but Brown’s Star White tied it off a goalmouth scramble 5:20 later and Zeinab Kante won it in the first overtime when she capitalized on a miscommunication between Kriebisch and one of her defenders.
Christine Etzel made two saves on five shot attempts for 1-0 Brown while Kriebisch wound up with made eight on 20 shots.