The University of Maine women’s soccer team’s aspirations to claim a fourth consecutive America East championship were quashed by Bryant in Sunday’s semifinals as the Bulldogs triumphed 2-0 in Smithfield, Rhode Island.
Bryant had earned the second seed and a first-round bye in the tournament with a 1-0 regular season win over UMaine on Oct. 22.
Third-seeded UMaine beat Albany 2-0 in Thursday’s quarterfinal.
Samatha Zaslaw capitalized on a UMaine turnover to score what proved to be the game-winner at the 54:24 mark. It was her eighth goal of the season. Zaslaw also had the lone goal in the regular season win over UMaine.
Grayson Edwards added an insurance goal at 80:22 off a Caitlin Forshay pass.
Shannon Mejia made five saves on 18 UMaine shot attempts, while UMaine’s Elena Barenberg had two stops on eight Bulldog attempts.
UMaine had a 15-4 edge in second-half shot attempts. UMaine finished with nine corner kicks to Bryant’s four.
Bryant (7-6-4) will now travel to face top seed Binghamton (9-3-5) in Saturday’s 1 p.m. title game.
It will be the Bulldogs’ first title game appearance since joining America East in 2022.
UMaine finished the season at 8-6-4 and scored only seven goals in nine road games.