The University of Maine-Fort Kent men’s and women’s soccer teams annexed United States Collegiate Athletic Association national championships Saturday in Asheville, North Carolina.
They are hoping to receive the opportunity to each win two national championships next season.
UMFK men’s soccer coach and athletic director Bill Ashby said the school has applied to rejoin the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. And since the NAIA season is longer than the USCAA’s, the teams theoretically could participate in both national championship tournaments as they have in the past.
They also would remain in the USCAA. They left the NAIA in 2010 after having played in both.
“We’ll find out at the national (NAIA) convention in March,” Ashby said. “We’re looking to branch out, mostly to schedule games. We would have opportunities to schedule games closer to us in the NAIA.”
Ashby said putting together a schedule is the toughest part of his job because of their remote location and the fact “a lot of people won’t play us.”
Ashby said Fisher College in Massachusetts is the only other New England school in the NAIA, but “the NAIA is making a big push to establish a league in New England.”
Ashby said the NAIA would be more competitive than the USCAA.
“The top four teams in the USCAA would be teams eight through 12 in the NAIA,” Ashby said.
The USCAA and NAIA offer athletic scholarships.
UMFK’s two soccer teams each have available approximately $56,000 of athletic scholarship money.
NCAA Division III schools are plentiful in New England, but they aren’t allowed to offer athletic scholarships.
Ashby and UMFK women’s coach Lucas Levesque took different paths to their titles.
The men beat Bryant and Stratton Syracuse (New York) in penalty kicks thanks to three penalty kick saves by sophomore goalkeeper Butch Forbes, who plays for the Jamaica Under-19 team.
“I’m ecstatic,” said Ashby, whose team dropped the last two title games to West Virginia University Institute of Technology. It was the Bengals’ first championship since 2010.
Levesque’s UMFK women cruised to their third straight national title, 7-0, over Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences.
They have posted six straight shutouts in USCAA tournament play the last two years.
“We were very, very explosive up front,” Levesque, who is in his 12th season, said. “That was the big difference between us and a lot of other teams.
“This is the best team I’ve had, by far,” said Levesque, whose team went 20-2 and only lost to a pair of NCAA Division II schools on a trip to Ohio (Whalen and Ashland Universities). “We were able to play 22 players and that kept everybody happy.”
Dynamic Canadians Katherine Ferland (29 goals, 15 assists) and Marie-Laurance Montagne (14 & 14) and Californian Yosselin Berrueco (19 & 19) were unstoppable. Catherine Bruno (9 & 3) and Veronica De La Cruz (11 & 2) headlined a dominant midfield and the smothering defense featured Brianna Mills, Emma Ashby, Kelsi Lanphear and Sam Carapellucci.
Ashby said his 21-2 team is one of the best he’s had in his 10 years.
“We had quality and depth at every position. It’s one of the most well-balanced teams I’ve had in 30 years of coaching,” said Ashby, whose Bengals featured the prolific trio of Ross Downie (22 & 8), Willie Monthe (19 & 7) and Ben Kluvers (15 & 8) and a stellar back line of Phil Dionne, Stuart Conway, Stephen Al-Sayed and Tom Coxon.
Scots Al-Sayed and Conway had 15 and 13 assists, respectively.