ORONO, Maine — The University of Maine’s women’s soccer team entered Friday’s game against the University of New Hampshire needing just a tie to secure a quarterfinal round bye in the America East playoffs as the second seed.
UNH redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Sally Rainey made a pair of great saves to keep the Black Bears off the scoreboard but the Black Bears turned in an exceptional defensive performance to earn the point they needed by virtue of a 0-0 tie.
Teams receive three points for a win and one for a tie, and UNH had to beat UMaine to leapfrog the Black Bears into second.
There are no overtimes in regular season games.
Third seed and defending champ UNH, 3-1-4 in the conference and 6-4-5 overall, will now entertain sixth seed Vermont for a Monday quarterfinal game.
The winner of the UNH-Vermont game will travel to Orono for a Thursday semifinal.
UMaine is now 4-1-3 and 9-1-6 and it extended its unbeaten streak at Mahaney Diamond to 17 games (9-0-8).
UNH beat UMaine 2-1 in the semifinals in Durham, N.H. last season.
UMaine had a 14-9 edge in shot attempts.
UMaine graduate student goalkeeper Kira Kutzinski made six saves en route to her sixth shutout of the season.
Rainey finished with nine stops for her eighth shutout.
“We played well in moments and the most important thing was the outcome,” said UMaine head coach Scott Atherley. “We knew we needed a point to get a first-round bye and that’s what happened.”
The Black Bears had a decided edge in play in the first half but the final pass which could have created a great chance wasn’t there as it it was often overhit, allowing Rainey to come off her line and collect the ball. On other occasions, it ran over the end line for a goal kick or was cleared by the UNH defense.
“That was something we talked about at halftime. Our buildups were great and the entries into the final third were great but what was missing was the final pass,” said Atherley. “We didn’t get a number of opportunities in the second half but neither did they.
“We were smart about how we closed out the game,” Atherley added.
“That was an old school great battle,” said UNH coach Steve Welham. “Maine has a great squad. Scott does a great job. It’s a lot of fun playing these guys.
“They had a couple good chances and we had a couple as well. It was a couple inches here or there,” added the UNH coach. “There’s no question (Rainey) kept us in the match in a couple of key moments in the game.”
Atherley said junior midfielder Kristina Kelly from Lincolnville was the player of the match for the Black Bears as she won tons of 50-50 balls and created scoring chances with her speed and tenacity while also coming back to help out when needed in the defensive third.
“Overall, we had one of our best performances of the season,” said Kelly, a transfer from Central Connecticut State. “We kept our composure, played together and settled the ball down which is exactly what we wanted to do.”
Sophomore Rebecca Grisdale anchored a stout UMaine back line that also included sisters Emma and Myla Schneider along with Doireann Fahey.
“We focused on clearing the ball away but also keeping it. Not just kicking it for no purpose. We had a lot of purpose keeping the ball and being able to pass it around and build up the field,” said Grisdale. “We also tried to surround the ball right away (when they got the ball). We wanted to get (two versus ones). We didn’t want to give them time to get shots off.”
Senior Alivia Kelly and sophomore Maddie Kolb were stellar in the back for UNH.
“We knew it was going to be a great battle. It’s always a fight. We knew that coming in,” said Alivia Kelly. “We knew it was going to be hard. And we were close (to winning it). Maine is hard to beat, especially coming here. They have some great offense, great defense and goalkeeping.”
The Black Bears had three good scoring chances in the first half and UNH had a couple of long-range opportunities.
Kelly rattled the crossbar with a shot from a difficult angle to the right of Rainey.
A few minutes later Rainey made a terrific diving save to her right to deny Luise Reinwald, who unleashed a well-placed shot from the top of the penalty area.
A Kelly corner kick provided Lara Kirkby with good chance from just beyond the six-yard box but she couldn’t get her head over the ball and headed it over the crossbar.
Rainey had four saves in the first half while Kutzinski made two.
UMaine had a 57-43 percent edge in ball possession.
UNH had a good spell of play early in the second half and generated a couple of dangerous free kicks but the Black Bears were able to clear them out of danger.
Abbi Maier had a long shot that was grabbed by Kutzinski early in the half.
Rainey robbed UMaine leading scorer Abby Kraemer with a tremendous right hand stop in the opening minutes of the second half and, late in the game, Kolb raced across the penalty area to block a Kelly shot off a Kraemer pass.
UMaine finished with a 61-39 edge in possession.
