The University of Maine women’s basketball team — which has to replace its top three scorers, Adrianna Smith, Asta Blauenfeldt and Sarah Talon, off last year’s 19-13 team — was picked to finish fourth in the America East preseason coaches poll Monday.
Binghamton, which finished third a year ago, was chosen as the favorite to win it. Binghamton earned 60 points and six first-place votes, followed by the University of Maryland Baltimore County (57 points, two first-place votes) and defending regular season and tournament champion Vermont (48 points, one first-place vote).
UMaine, runnerup to Vermont in the regular season and in the tournament, tallied 41 points and was followed by Bryant (40 points), the New Jersey Institute of Technology (29), Albany (25), New Hampshire (16) and UMass Lowell (8).
There weren’t any UMaine players chosen to the All-America East preseason team. Binghamton had two players chosen in Kendall Bennett and Bella Pucci, Bryant had two in Mia Mancini and Nia Scott, and the others were Vermont’s Malia Lenz and UMBC’s Heidi Williams.
Forward Smith, a three-time All-America East first team selection chosen as the league’s Player of the Year for the second time in her career in 2025-26, led the conference in scoring (22.8 points per game), rebounding (10.7) and assists (4.7) in 2025-26.
Guard Blauenfeldt earned a spot on the All-America East third team by averaging 11 ppg and 1.7 assists along with 1.6 steals.
Talon, also a guard, averaged 8.9 points, 4.6 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.6 steals per contest.
Smith, Blauenfeldt and Talon scored 69.2% of the team’s points a year ago and also contributed 62% of the assists, 57.8% of the steals and 53.1% of the rebounds.
Headlining the list of returnees are sophomore guard Lala Woods, senior forward Kaliyah Sain, senior center Lizzy Gruber and sophomore guard Olivia Alvarez.
Woods started the team’s last 17 games and earned a spot on the America East All-Rookie Team by averaging 8.4 points and 2.4 rebounds per game. She saw 32.7 minutes of playing time per game. She was the team’s top free-throw shooter at 87.5%.
Sain, a transfer from Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, had a promising first season at UMaine cut short after eight games by a season-ending injury. She averaged 8.4 points and 4.8 rebounds.
The 6-foot-4 Gruber from Gardiner, a transfer from Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, led the team in blocked shots with 31, and she also averaged 4.3 points and 2.7 rebounds in 12 minutes of playing time per game.
Alvarez evolved into the team’s starting point guard and averaged 3.7 points, 2.6 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.3 steals. She saw 29.6 minutes of playing time per outing.
The other returnees are senior back-up point guard and defensive specialist Emmie Streams-Stevens from Veazie, junior guard Izzy Allen from Corinth, sophomore guards Maddie Fitzpatrick and Abby Price, sophomore guard-forward Mackenzie Mori and sophomore forward Bailey Breen.
Fitzpatrick is from Cumberland, and Breen is from South Thomaston.
Streams played in all 32 games and averaged 11.5 minutes, Fitzpatrick averaged nine minutes in 27 games, and Price and Mori appeared in 13 and 12 games, respectively, while Allen saw action in nine contests.
The 6-foot-3 Breen did not appear in any games a year ago.
The newcomers are junior guard and Arizona Christian transfer Taylor Schwab, freshman guards Ayla Corrigale, Ava Sewall and Aina Real, and freshman forward Zeina Haleem.
Head coach Amy Vachon’s Black Bears will open their season with two games in the first America East-Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Challenge when its hosts Siena College at 6 p.m. on Nov. 5 and then travels to Merrimack College for a 2 p.m. game on Nov. 8.