Head coach Scott Atherley and the University of Maine women’s soccer team feel last year’s first-ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament will serve them well when the 13-1-3 Black Bears travel to the University of Wisconsin to face the 9-5-4 Badgers in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Game time is 8 p.m. Friday at the McClimon Track/Soccer Complex in Madison, WI.
Wisconsin is the fifth seed in the 16-team bracket.
There are 64 teams that qualify and they are divided into four, 16-team brackets.
The winner will take on the victor of the game between fourth seed Virginia (12-5) and fifth seed Princeton (14-4).
UMaine lost to Harvard, 3-0, in Cambridge, Mass. in last year’s NCAA game as the Crimson scored three first-half goals.
Atherley said having an NCAA game under their belts will have tremendous value. He said last year’s team was emotional about just making the tournament and expended a lot of energy during and after winning the America East championship by beating UMass Lowell.
“I think we have learned how to manage the week going into the tournament and just the expectations about how we’re going to attack it,’’ Atherley said. “We’re going to attack it like any other game. That and having played Rutgers and Syracuse (this season) was really important for us.”
Rutgers is the one opponent UMaine and Wisconsin have in common.
Rutgers, like Wisconsin, is in the Big Ten,
Rutgers beat both, topping UMaine 3-0 in New Jersey and Wisconsin 1-0 in Madison.
Syracuse is in the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Black Bears tied Syracuse 1-1 in Syracuse.
Senior midfielder and tri-captain Lara Kirkby called last year’s experience invaluable.
“Taking what we learned from Harvard last year in the national tournament, the set-up and how it all worked (is beneficial),” said Kirkby. “We have a lot of players who have now played in the tournament and that gives us a lot of confidence and let’s us really relax and enjoy it.”
Graduate student midfielder Kristina Kelly from Lincolnville agreed with Atherley’s assessment that playing Rutgers and Syracuse will serve them well.
Rutgers is 11-4-5 and a sixth seed and will face the University of Connecticut in its first-round game.
Syracuse wound up 6-10-2 and didn’t qualify.
“Playing tougher games this season, playing Rutgers and Syracuse, and knowing a bit more about ourselves and being able to grow from those games as a unit will make more of an impact (than gaining NCAA experience),” said Kelly. “But being able to go (to the NCAA Tournament) last year and keep Harvard from scoring in the second half showed us we can be competitive so remembering that and using everything we learned from this season will make us good.”
Senior forward and leading scorer Abby Kraemer said they felt like they hit their peak in the America East championship game win over UMass Lowell last season “but, right now, we feel we haven’t hit our peak yet. There’s still more for this team to give.
“We set a goal at the start of the season to make it by our first-round game so we’re looking to achieve that,” Kraemer added. “We still have yet to play our best game. “
Kraemer said she was surprised that the NCAA Selection Committee sent them to Wisconsin instead of having them paired up against a team in the East but she said “I’m excited about the opportunity.”
Wisconsin, a 1-0 loser to Ohio State in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament, features three All-Big Ten selections in second team defender Hailey Baumann, third team forward and nine-goal scorer Aryssa Mahrt and third team midfielder Ashley Martinez.
This will be the Badgers’ seventh NCAA Tournament appearance over the last eight seasons and head coach Paula Wilkins is the winningest coach in Wisconsin history with 321 in her 18 seasons to date. She has the third-most wins in Big Ten history and is second in regular season championships with eight. She also has three tourney titles.
UMaine will bring a 12-game unbeaten streak into the game (11-0-1) and the Black Bears have received goals from five different players in their 2-0 win over UMass Lowell and 3-0 triumph over New Hampshire in the tournament.
Kayla Kraemer and Windham’s Abbey Thornton scored vs. UML and Jordane Pinette, Abby Kraemer and Kirkby found the net against UNH. Freshman goalie Grace Wilson, filling in for Jessica Kasacek (family emergency), has stopped all six shots she has faced in the two games.
