The University of Maine’s field hockey team was picked to finish fourth among seven teams in the America East preseason poll after finishing an uncharacteristic sixth a year ago.
UMaine was 8-12 overall and its 3-5 conference record marked the first time it had a losing mark in America East since 2012.
The Black Bears won the regular season title in 2022 and 2021 and shared the championship with now-departed Monmouth in 2020-21.
Head coach Josette Babineau, assistants Michelle Simpson and Leslie Smith-Abplanalp and the players are out to prove last season was an aberration.
The Black Bear coaching staff brought in eight players and four of them are transfers who have brought an average of 54 ½ games of experience to the program.
They are from four different countries which brings the number of nations represented on the roster to 11.
Three are graduate students including former Kent State fullback Alexandra Sacker from England and midfielder Victoria Tinghitella from Argentina; ex-Quinnipiac midfielder Micaela Grajales from Uruguay and forward Maeve Fogarty, a junior who played at the University of Rochester and is from St. Louis, Mo.
“They have been great additions to our team,” said graduate student midfielder Bhreagh Kennedy from Skowhegan. “I love playing with them and seeing their skills and their perspective and listening to and absorbing what they’ve gained from their careers.”
Poppy Lambert, a graduate student center and three-time All-America East selection from New Zealand, agreed.
“It’s exciting. They’re bringing a lot to the field and to the team,” Lambert said.
Kennedy and Lambert thoroughly enjoy being on a team with players from 11 different countries.
“As a Mainer, playing with all these girls from different countries has been amazing. I’m very lucky to call them my teammates,” said Kennedy.
“It’s incredible. It’s a fantastic opportunity to play with people raised in different places who play different styles of field hockey. We get the chance to come together and it’s really awesome,” said Lambert.
Lambert was the conference’s Defensive Player of the Year and a second team All-American in 2022 and is seven goals away from tying Kelly Newton’s school-record 57 career goals.
Babineau said in addition to their skill and experience, the transfers have brought toughness to the team that was lacking a year ago.
“They are physically strong,” said Babineau.
Lambert, who was on the preseason all-conference team, will team with Sacker to anchor the back line. They will be the center backs.
“She and Poppy are working really well together,” said Babineau. “They are very knowledgeable and bring a nice calmness and presence to the field. They’ve been directing a lot of the midfielders in front of them.”
Lambert, a 22-goal scorer two years ago, scored five last season to go with three assists as teams did a much better job defending her blistering shot off penalty corners.
Sacker, who had three goals and three assists for Kent State in 2023 and played in 54 career games there, also has a powerful shot, according to Babineau, so that will give the Black Bears another option as they try to improve their proficiency on penalty corners.
Babineau said elevating their penalty corner scoring and getting more offensive production from the midfielders will be important, especially since they lost leading scorer and second-team All-America East forward Mallory Mackesy (12 goals, 8 assists) to Central Michigan and No. 2 point-producer Tereza Holubcova (5 & 7) to graduation.
“If we can be better in those two areas, it will help distribute the scoring and so we won’t be relying on just one or two players,” said Babineau. “Our scoring is going to have to come from different areas.”
The starting outside backs will be skillful sophomore Eloise Penty, who appeared in 18 games and had four assists, junior Taylor Katsube, who has made a nice transition from forward to the back line according to Babineau.
Freshman Connie Davies from Wales and senior Avani Gill are outside backs.
Gill and Katsube are two of the six Canadians on the roster.
The midfield will be very seasoned and solid.
Tinghitella played in 69 games at Kent State, Kennedy has 52 games under her belt at UMaine and Grajales appeared in 51 games at Quinnipiac.
Kennedy has five goals and five assists over her last two seasons; Grajales had 4 & 5 in 2023 and ‘22 and Tinghitella had seven assists during that span.
Juniors Olivia Geniti (1 goal in 2023) and Zoe Furber (1 assist) and sophomore Brynn Dzengelewski (2 & 2) will also see playing time in the midifield.
Newport sophomore midfielder Brianna Townsend was a redshirt last year.
Up front, sophomore Saylor Kuefler had five goals and two assists as the team’s No. 4 scorer and was chosen to the America East All-Rookie team.
Junior Kate Richardson from Scotland (3 & 1) was chosen to the AE all-tourney team and transfer Fogarty was a first team Division III All-American at Rochester where she scored 13 goals and added seven assists in 21 games last season.
Fogarty has “tremendous speed” according to Babineau and is very skilled with the ball.
Freshman Emily Chisholm is a speedster, according to Babineau, and junior Taylor Stanford, who played in 13 games a year ago, is another option up front along with freshman Floor Dijkhuizen from The Netherlands.
Sophomore Jayde Temby from Australia is back in goal after sharing the position with Mallory Drayer a year ago. Drayer has graduated so Babineau brought in graduate student Rozarie Mrazova from the Czech Republic to replace her.
Babineau said Temby has shown significant improvement after receiving valuable experience last season, posting a 2.51 goals-against average and .657 save percentage in 13 games.
The UMaine coach feels she has a much deeper team this season and she sees a big difference in practice from last year to this year.
“The caliber and level of our practices is much higher,” said Babineau.
Lambert and Kennedy also said being picked fourth in the preseason poll will provide motivation.
“We have a lot to prove. Some people might be shocked how (well) we perform this year,” said Kennedy.
“I love being the underdog,” said Lambert. “It’s a good position to be in. Last year was a bit of a rebuilding year. We’re excited to show how hard we’ve been working.”
UMaine will play an exhibition game against Brown in Durham, N.H. on Sunday and will open the season against 2022 and ‘23 NCAA runner-up and 2021 NCAA titleist Northwestern in Evanston, Ill. on Aug. 30.
By BDN – US
