ORONO, Maine — The University of Maine’s women’s soccer team defended its America East Tournament championship on Sunday afternoon with a 3-0 win over the University of New Hampshire.
The Black Bears received goals about 8 minutes apart in the first 11:12 of the game from Jordane Pinette and Abby Kraemer, and Lara Kirkby added a second half goal as the America East regular season titleist beat second seed UNH at Mahaney Diamond.
UMaine improved to 13-1-3 and will advance to the NCAA tournament.
The NCAA tournament selection show is at 4 p.m. Monday.
UMaine is unbeaten in its past 12 games (11-0-1) and extended its Mahaney Diamond unbeaten streak to 27 games (17-0-10).
UNH, which had the America East Striker of the Year (Meghan Guarante), Goalkeeper of the Year (Sally Rainey) and Defender of the Year (Maddie Kolb), finished at 12-5-1 including two losses to UMaine, and the three goals was the most allowed by UNH in a game this season.
Rainey entered the game with an 0.65 goals-against average.
“We played so well from start to finish,” said UMaine head coach Scott Atherley. “We got the start we wanted to. We said we had to attack their [penalty area] and getting the two-goal lead was critical for us and the third one ended it.”
Junior forward Pinette opened the scoring three minutes into the game. Abby Kraemer raced into the penalty area for the ball and was confronted by Rainey. The ball bounced free and Pinette turned and deposited into the empty net from 20 yards out.
“I was expecting Abby to put it in the back of the net, but I knew that I needed to follow because something could come out of it. The ball came out of nowhere, it was right in front of me and I knew I needed to put it into the net,” said Pinette, whose goal was her sixth of the year.
Senior forward Kraemer made it 2-0 by masterfully controlling sister Kayla Kraemer’s long, high cross on her foot and calmly tucking it past Rainey.
“[Kayla] played a perfect ball. It landed right at my feet. I saw the open corner and just had to run the ball in,” said Abby Kraemer, whose goal was her seventh.
UMaine senior center back Anna Phillips said building a quick, two-goal lead “helped us settle into the game and gave us a lot of confidence. It also gave us momentum that we kept throughout the game.”
Senior midfielder and tri-captain Kirkby iced it in the second half off a pass from Abby Kraemer. Victoria Dungey also assisted on it.
“I got the ball on the sideline and a defender cut off the cross into the six-yard box,” said Abby Kraemer. “I heard Lara screaming to me to cut it back. I hoped for the best and sliced it back and she banged it in.”
It was Kirkby’s fifth goal.
Senior defender Myla Schneider, who was chosen the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, said it was a “great game.
“It’s playoff soccer so obviously the pressure is high and the stakes are high and everyone went out and put their best foot forward which was really great,” said Schneider. “It was a great defensive effort by the entire team.”
Abby Kraemer called it a “great team win.”
UNH graduate student back Giovanna Castorina said it took them some time to get the “nerves out of our system” and the sun was an issue early.
“They capitalized on the chances they had [early],” said Castorina. “Their third goal was a good goal.
“We played our hearts out, but the soccer gods aren’t always in your favor. I thought we outplayed the heck out of them in the second half,” added Castorina. “We should be proud of our performance.”
UNH had some spells with possession and forays into the attacking third in the latter stages of the first half and the early stages of the second half but couldn’t generate high-percentage scoring chances off them.
Freshman goalkeeper Grace Wilson, filling in for Jessica Kasacek (family emergency), posted the shutout, making five saves.
She has had shutouts in all three of her starts this season.
“I have to credit the back line. They didn’t let (many) shots get through,” said the 5-foot-11 Wilson, a member of Australia’s Under-20 National team that played in the Under-20 World Cup in Colombia early this fall.
UNH had 12 shot attempts to UMaine’s nine and each had five shots on goal.
Rainey finished with two saves.
UMaine played the last 11 minutes with 10 players after junior defender Rebecca Grisdale received a second yellow card, which resulted in a red card and ejection.
UMaine put four players on the all-tournament team in the Schneider sisters, Myla and Emma, along with Abby Kraemer and Kirkby. The others were UNH’s Elizabeth Finn, Megan Logue and Abbi Maier; UMass Lowell’s Megan Banzi and Emma Mitchell, Binghamton’s Brooke Herber and MacKenzie Ryder and Bryant’s Laney Ross.
Kirkby earned the Elite 18 Award given to the player with the highest grade-point average among student-athletes competing in the championship. The senior has a 3.98 GPA as a biology major.