The defending three-time America East champion University of Maine’s soccer team opens a three-game homestand at 7 p.m. Thursday when it entertains Mercer University from Macon, Georgia at the New Balance Soccer Complex in Orono.
UMaine lost its first game of the season at the University of Rhode Island, 1-0, last week while Mercer, which plays in the Southern Conference, is 2-0 after earning road wins at Jackson State 2-1 and West Georgia 1-0.
UMaine will follow that up with a noon game on Sunday against Sacred Heart, which is off to a 2-0 start for the first time since 2000, and the finish off the homestand with a contest against Merrimack at 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 27.
Merrimack will take an 0-1-1 record into a Sunday night game at UMass Lowell.
“It’s good to be home,” said UMaine head coach Scott Atherley. “Our players really appreciate being in a routine. And they love playing on our new field.”
Mercer and Sacred Heart, like Rhode Island, all played in their conference championship games a year ago, with Rhode Island losing to Dayton in penalty kicks, Mercer losing to Samford 4-1 and Sacred Heart triumphing over Canisius in penalty kicks.
Sacred Heart lost its NCAA tournament game to Georgetown, 3-0.
Merrimack was 4-12-2 a year ago and failed to make the conference tourney.
Sacred Heart was chosen second in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference in the preseason coaches poll and Merrimack was picked ninth. Mercer was selected sixth in the Southern Conference.
“They all present something different in terms of how they play,” said Atherley. “[Mercer] is the team we are least familiar with, and what I like about that, it really kind of forces you to focus on your own team and not get so caught up on every tendency they have.
“When you play regional opponents, everybody knows everybody. So this is one to just really be able to go out and impose the things that we do well and see what kind of things they expose on us and use that for feedback. They’re a balanced, well-organized team that is pretty aggressive about getting forward.”
UMaine beat Merrimack 3-2 a year ago after being ahead 2-0 and the previous four games between the teams ended in ties.
Mercer and Sacred Heart will come to Orono with their respective conference’s reigning Offensive Players of the Week in Mercer midfielder Payton Nutzman and Sacred Heart forward Shea Kelleher.
Nutzman had both goals in the win over Jackson State and Kelleher had a pair of goals and two assists in the two Sacred Heart wins.
Kelleher was the Metro Conference’s Preseason Player of the Year.
Merrimack forward Kylie Fuller was the Metro Rookie of the Year last season.
Atherley was pleased with his team’s performance against Rhode Island as the Black Bears limited the Rams to three shots on goal while generating five themselves. But a 74th-minute goal by Nika Jacobs off a corner kick proved to be decisive.
He said they need to use the width of the field more effectively on the attack by switching the point of attack.
“When you move the ball across the field, that’s when you open up spaces. We got stuck on one side which made us easier to defend,” Atherley said. “It’s important for us to generate quality scoring chances because they will eventually [go in]. And we want to be a good set piece team.”
Junior midfielder Emma Nicholson, who missed the last six games of 2025 with an injury, had a breakaway that was saved by Rhode Island’s Dani Eden and she also hit the crossbar.
Senior midfielder Abbey Thornton from Windham and the fullback line of center backs Meghan Bernetti and Olivia Grisdale along with right back Hilary Washington and left back Amanda Clauzel were praised by Atherley for their performance.
He used 17 field players with 15 playing at least 20 minutes.
“This team is as deep as any we’ve ever had from top to bottom and when you have multiple-game weeks, you have to be very careful not to overplay players,” said Atherley.
He added that it is also important to use a lot of players in order to evaluate them so “you know what you have going into conference games.”