Coach Scott Atherley’s University of Maine women’s soccer team will open the 2015 season against an impressive Fairfield University team at 7 Friday night on the FieldTurf at Mahaney Diamond in Orono.
Maine is hosting an invitational round-robin tournament that also will include New York schools Wagner College and Fordham University.
Wagner and Fordham open the tourney at 4 p.m. Friday.
Maine will face Fordham at 2 p.m. Sunday after an 11 a.m. game between Wagner and Fairfield.
Atherley said his team’s first five games, which include contests against Rhode Island, Providence and NCAA Tournament team Northeastern, represent “the most challenging start in my (17-year) tenure.”
“We have so many young players, so we’re going to have to rely on our upperclassmen for good leadership,” said Atherley.
He noted that he has an ambitious nonconference schedule and will use it to prepare the Black Bears for their America East games.
He said his team is seeking wins but he also will use the nonconference games to evaluate his personnel.
“We have so many new players. It’s a fine line. We need to find out things,” said Atherley. “One of our strengths is our depth. You need to have depth nowadays because every team is so athletic.”
Maine, 4-8-6 a year ago, will feature freshman midfielder and former German Under-17 player Vivien Beil; senior striker Charlene Achille, who scored six of Maine’s 10 goals a year ago; America East Defender of the Year Noelle Leon-Palmer and AE Goalkeeper of the Year Claudia Dube-Trempe.
Fairfield was 14-4-3 a year ago, Fordham was 8-9-1 and Wagner was 9-7-3. Each returns its leading scorer from 2014 in Cassidy Boegel (9 goals, 2 assists), Jessica Widmann (4 & 4) and Johanna Konrad (7 & 1), respectively.