University of Maine women’s basketball coach Amy Vachon has always liked to play a challenging nonconference schedule to prepare her team for its America East schedule.
This year’s team should certainly be ready for its America East opponents because its nonconference schedule features seven teams that earned berths in post-season tournaments last season including four NCAA Tournament squads.
One of the Black Bears’ 13 nonconference opponents has yet to be announced.
Five of the teams won at least 23 games in 2025-26.
Big Ten teams Oregon and Michigan State, who each won an NCAA Tournament game, headline the list along with Fairfield University and the University of Rhode Island, who captured their conference tournament titles to earn the automatic bids to the NCAA tourney.
Missouri and Quinnipiac received Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament berths, and George Washington played in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament.
UMaine will open its season against Siena University and Merrimack in the first-ever America East-Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Challenge.
UMaine will host Siena on Nov. 5 and travel to North Andover, Massachusetts, to take on Merrimack three days later.
Siena went 13-17 overall last season, 11-9 in regular season conference play, and lost to Iona in the MAAC quarterfinals. Merrimack went 19-13 and 15-5, respectively, and lost to Fairfield in the semifinals.
Oregon will visit the Skip Chappelle Court in the Memorial Gym in Orono on Nov. 13 after compiling a 23-13 record a year ago, 8-10 in the Big Ten. Oregon beat Virginia Tech 70-60 in its first NCAA Tournament game before being eliminated by Texas 100-58.
That will kick off a string of four straight home games.
Brown University visits Orono on Nov. 15 after a 16-11 season, 8-6 in the Ivy League, including a semifinal loss to Princeton in the league semifinals.
Virginia Commonwealth is next on Nov. 19 following an 8-23 campaign, 4-14 in the Atlantic-10, with a first round A-10 tourney loss to Duquesne.
The University of Pennsylvania completes the Black Bear home stand on Nov. 22. Penn went 17-10 a year ago, 7-7 in the Ivy League, but didn’t qualify for the league’s four-team tournament.
The Black Bears will then fly to Daytona Beach, Florida, to play in the Coast 2 Coast Women’s Basketball Daytona Beach Classic on Nov. 27-28.
UMaine will take on Missouri (17-17, 4-12 Southeastern Conference) on Nov. 27, but the Nov. 28 opponent has yet to be announced. Missouri lost to Alabama in the SEC tourney and then beat Seton Hall and lost to Brigham Young University in the WBIT.
Michigan State (23-9, 11-7 Big Ten) will host the Black Bears on either Dec. 2 or 3. Michigan State topped Colorado State in the NCAA Tournament before being eliminated by Oklahoma.
Quinnipiac (27-7, 19-1 in the MAAC) comes to Orono on Dec. 6. The Bobcats lost to Fairfield in the MAAC title game before beating George Mason and losing to Stanford in the WBIT.
Fairfield (28-5, 19-1) will face UMaine on Dec. 9 at the Portland Expo. Fairfield lost to Notre Dame in the NCAA Tournament.
UMaine will conclude its non-league schedule at the University of Rhode Island on Dec. 13 and at George Washington eight days later.
URI went 28-5 overall and 16-2 in the Atlantic-10, topping George Mason in the championship game before losing to Alabama in the NCAA Tournament.
George Washington was 18-18 a year ago, 7-11 in the A-10, and lost to Dayton in the league tournament.
But the Revolutionaries went on to beat Bradley, Southern Indiana and Loyola-Chicago in the WNIT to reach the Great Eight for the first time in program history. But Illinois State beat them in the Great Eight.
UMaine played six of its nonconference opponents this past season, losing to Virginia Commonwealth (81-77), Brown (70-39), Penn (58-35), URI (69-56) and Fairfield (74-51) and beating Quinnipiac (63-55).
UMaine will return 10 players but just two starters off last year’s team that went 19-13 overall and 12-4 in America East and reached the tourney title game where it was beaten by Vermont.
The Black Bears lost their top three scorers including two-time America East Player of the Year Adrianna Smith, who led the league in scoring (22.8 points per game), rebounding (10.7), assists (4.7), double-doubles (20) and minutes played per game (34.9) this past season.
She left after becoming the only basketball player in league history, male or female, to score over 1,000 points (1.887), grab 1,000 rebounds (1,052) and dish out 400 assists (431) in her career.