The University of Maine women’s soccer team has been picked to win its fourth consecutive America East tournament championship in the coaches’ annual preseason poll.
Barely.
The Black Bears received four first-place votes and 60 points to edge out Binghamton, which also earned four first-place votes but wound up with 58 points.
Vermont received the other first-place vote and received 53 points followed by UMass Lowell (40 points), New Hampshire (35), Bryant (33), the New Jersey Institute of Technology (20), the University of Maryland Baltimore County (16) and Albany (9).
UMaine is seeking to become just the second team in league history dating back to its inception in 1991 to win more than three consecutive tourney titles.
Boston University captured five straight from 2007-2011 and is now in the Patriot League.
Hartford, which is now an NCAA Division III institution after a long stint in Division I, is the only other team to win as many as three in a row (1997, ’98, ’99).
Binghamton is the defending regular season champ and has finished atop the regular season standings three of the past four seasons but hasn’t won the tournament since 2004.
UMaine won the tourney a year ago as the fourth seed.
UMaine topped No. 5 New Hampshire, 2-1, in Orono before earning road wins at Binghamton , 1-0 in double overtime and at second seed Vermont in a penalty kick shootout after rallying from a 2-0 deficit to tie it and force overtime and the shootout.
Senior midfielder Luise Reinwald and junior midfielder Oliva Grisdale were each chosen to the league’s preseason all-conference team.
Reinwald was an All-America East second team choice last fall and was also picked to the all-tournament team along with Grisdale and returning sophomore goalkeeper Elena Barenberg.
Barenberg was chosen the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player and was an America East All-Rookie team honoree.
UMaine will host Binghamton, UMass Lowell, NJIT and Albany while visiting Vermont, New Hampshire, Bryant and UMBC.
Binghamton placed five players on the All-America East preseason team in forwards Jahkaya Davis and Paige Luke, midfielder Anna Buckwalter, defender Sophia Garofalo and goalkeeper Rebecca Kessler. Vermont had two in midfielder Madeline Gardner and defender Bridget Kennedy. Bryant defender Colleen Ardolino and UMass Lowell forward Nora Belin were the other selections.
UMaine 28th-year head coach Scott Atherley had to replace nine starters last season and the Black Bears wound up 3-3-2 in the conference, 6-8-4 overall.
The Black Bears lost to Central Florida 2-0 in Orlando in the NCAA Tournament.
But he returns eight starters this season, including eight of his top 11 scorers, and will regain the services of several injured players who missed significant parts of the season if not the entire campaign.
And he has brought in eight newcomers including transfers Sandrine Brault from Oklahoma State and Isabelle Meadows from UConn.
Brault and Meadows joined the program last spring and played during the spring season.
Since finishing eighth in the nine-team league in 2021 and missing the tournament, the Black Bears haven’t finished any lower than fourth since including a league regular season title in 2024, a second-place finish in 2023 and a third place showing in 2022.
UMaine will open its season at the University of Rhode Island at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 12 and will follow that with its home opener at the New Balance Soccer Complex against Mercer University from Georgia at 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 20.