Reigning America East women’s soccer player of the week Abby Kraemer wants to be part of a first-time accomplishment.
That is one of the primary reasons the junior striker decided to attend the University of Maine. Joining her older sister, senior Kayla Kraemer, on the Black Bears’ soccer team was another major contributor to her decision.
“Kayla played a big role, but when push came to shove, this team had never won a conference [tournament] championship and that motivated me. I want to be part of a historic team,” Abby Kraemer said.
Kraemer is doing everything she can to realize her goal. Through eight games, she has already scored a league-high seven goals to go with two assists. Four of her goals have been game-winners, which ties her for second in the country among players at 336 Division I schools.
“That’s cool. But I just want to win,” said Kraemer, who was second on the team in goals last season with six after leading the team her freshman season with five.
Thanks to Kraemer, UMaine has done a lot of winning the past season and a half.
UMaine is off to a 5-0-3 start, which is the program’s best since the 2006 team went 8-0-1 to open a season that would eventually produce a school-record 14 wins.
UMaine is the only team in the nine-team conference that hasn’t lost a game yet.
The Black Bears went 4-0-4 in America East regular season play a year ago, becoming the first UMaine women’s soccer team to go undefeated in conference play. But they lost to eventual tournament champion New Hampshire 2-1 in the semifinals and eventually finished at 9-3-5 overall.
Kraemer said she didn’t come into the season with any expectations of how many goals she would score.
“Putting the ball in the net is something I work hard on. [Goals] don’t come easy. I just hope to keep them coming,” said the Waterloo, Ontario, native.
She takes pride in her work “off the ball” so she can put herself in position to get off a good shot.
“She is a natural goal scorer,” said UMaine head coach Scott Atherley, who is in his 25th season coaching the women’s team. “Not only is she technical, but she has the disposition of a goal-scorer. She’s bold, aggressive and she wants to be in position to score the game-winner.”
He also called her an exceptional athlete.
“She has very good speed and she is very dangerous when she is running at you with the ball at her feet,” Atherley said. “What makes her special is she can shoot on the run but she is also crafty when she is around the goal.”
Her work ethic contributes significantly to her success, the UMaine coach added, calling Kraemer one of “the most competitive kids” he has ever coached.
Kraemer ensured that there weren’t going to be any losses in their last two games as she scored the game-winner in the 88th minute of a 2-1 victory at Boston University last Thursday and notched both goals in a 2-1 victory at the University of Illinois-Chicago on Sunday.
That earned her America East Player of the Week honors.
Kraemer also played field hockey and ice hockey when she was younger before deciding on a soccer career.
“I always preferred soccer. I was better at soccer than anything else,” said the biochemistry major, who would like to go to medical school.
Atherley said he learned about Kraemer from her Burlington (Ontario) club team coach, Casey Downey.
“He said she was the real deal. He was right,” Atherley said.
The 5-foot-8 Kraemer, who was an All-America East second team pick a year ago after earning a spot on the All-Rookie team in 2021, said she doesn’t feel much has changed in her game this season.
“But we have more chemistry as a team. We’re connecting more. And we’re playing a prettier style of soccer this year,” Kraemer said.
She said last year’s success in which they made the playoffs for the first time since 2016 has created a better team culture and a confidence among them.
“Last year was a wakeup call for us,” Kraemer said. “We began to realize our potential as a team. We started believing we can win the [America East Tournament] and we’ve been riding that ever since.”
She said the current team has a lot of potential with quality players in every position and a lot of depth.
“They brought in a lot of good players, transfers and freshmen, and when players come into the game off the bench, they’re able to keep our level [of play] high,” Kraemer said.
The team will open America East play on Sunday at 3 p.m. when it hosts the University of Vermont’s 5-2 Catamounts.
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