The University of Maine women’s soccer team almost lost an opportunity to all but sew up the America East regular season championship Sunday in a showdown with Binghamton in Vestal, New York.
The Black Bears could still win it, but they will need help.
In its game against Binghamton, UMaine jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first 18:08 but Binghamton rallied to earn a 2-2 tie. That kept the Bearcats atop the America East standings by one point over UMaine, and each team has one game remaining on Thursday night.
UMaine will host archrival New Hampshire, which is in third place, in a Breast Cancer Awareness game at 6 p.m. at Mahaney Diamond, while Binghamton will travel to take on the New Jersey Institute of Technology at 7 p.m.
UMaine can still win the regular season title if it wins and Binghamton loses or ties at NJIT.
Binghamton has 15 points based on a 4-0-3 league record. Teams receive three points for a win and one for a tie.
UMaine has 14 points with its 4-1-2 conference record.
UMaine needs just a tie against UNH to finish second and earn a first-round bye in the six-team, single-elimination format and the right to host a semifinal.
A tie and a Binghamton loss would leave them tied and it would come down to a tiebreaker.
However, UMaine could finish as low as fourth with a loss and a UMass Lowell win at Bryant, because UMass Lowell and UMaine would be tied with 14 points. UMass Lowell would win the tiebreaker by virtue of its regular season win over the Black Bears.
In that case, UMaine would host a quarterfinal on Sunday against the fifth seed.
UNH has 12 points, UMass Lowell has 11 and NJIT has 10 in the battle for the top four seeds, while Bryant has eight.
“The big thing is we want to get a first or second seed so we can get a first-round bye,” said UMaine head coach Scott Atherley. “We have to take care of what we can control. The rest is out of our hands.”
UMaine was the third seed last year and beat NJIT 4-1 in the quarterfinals before losing at UNH 2-1 in the semifinals on a goal by Abbi Maier with 4:35 left. UNH went on to upset top seed Binghamton in penalty kicks in the championship game before losing to Harvard 2-0 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Atherley acknowledged that his team is fully aware that UNH ended its season last year, but said it is important for his players to “keep their emotions in check.”
“We can’t think about last year. We have to treat it as just another game and we have to focus on imposing ourselves and doing what we do well,” he said.
The Black Bears will enter the game with a 16-game home unbeaten streak (9-0-7) and it will be their first home night game of the season.
“Night games attract good crowds and everybody loves playing at night,” said Atherley, who added that if they could have looked into a crystal ball at the outset of the season and learned this is where they would be at this time of year, they would have been good with it.
“You couldn’t have written a better script,” he said. “It’s exciting.”
The Binghamton game was as even a game as you would ever see, Atherley said.
UMaine had the last six shot attempts of the game but couldn’t get the game-winner.
UNH is employing a more direct style of play and the Wildcats “will try to put us under a lot of pressure,” Atherley said.
“They’re very aggressive on the outside and like to take players on [one-on-one],” he added. “They will shoot from anywhere so we have to do a good job contesting their shots and provide a lot of cover when they get isolated outside.”
Abby Kraemer leads UMaine in scoring with 11 goals and four assists, and five of her goals have been game-winners. Midfielder Kristina Kelly from Lincolnville has two goals and three assists, while Kayla Kraemer, Abby’s sister, has three goals and one assist, and Julie Lossius has a goal and five assists.
UMaine has nine players who have scored at least two goals.
UMaine, which is 9-1-5 overall, has scored 32 goals and given up 14. Goalkeeper Kira Kutzinski has five shutouts, a 0.93 goals-against average and a .788 save percentage.
UNH, 6-4-4 overall, has scored 16 goals and given up 11. Meghan Guarente (5 goals, 4 assists), Maier (3 & 1) and Megan Logue (2 & 0) are the only UNH players with multiple goals. Goalkeeper Sally Rainey has seven shutouts, an 0.79 GAA and a .828 save percentage.