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ORONO, Maine – After a successful regular season that saw 12 wins in 17 games, the Maine Black Bears open postseason play against the No. 24 Pacific Tigers on Friday afternoon at UMass Lowell.
 
The Black Bears earned a share of the East Division title with UAlbany after going 6-2 in conference play, but Maine earned the No. 2 seed in the East division on a tie-breaker. Pacific enters the tournament as the No. 3 seed, but shared the West Division title with Stanford and Cal after going 4-2 in conference play.
 
Winners of five of their last six, Maine will look to win their first conference tournament game since the 2015 season, when the Black Bears advanced to the conference championship game.
 
Pacific also enters Friday's contest winners of five of their last six, with the lone loss coming against No. 12 Syracuse. The Tigers have swept their second half games against West Division foes, defeating Cal 3-2 on Oct. 13, downing UC Davis 5-1 on Oct. 15, before upsetting No. 17 Stanford 2-1 on Oct. 20.
 
The Tigers earned several America East postseason accolades, as Kriekie van Wyk took Offensive Player of the Year honors, while Savannah Burns was named the Midfielder of the Year. Burns and van Wyk also earned all-conference nods, while Nthabi Maine and Marlise van Tonder were selected to the all-rookie squad. Van Wyk ranks 10^th in the country and second in the America East with 0.94 goals per game.  For a recap of Maine's five America East award winners, click here.
 
Senior goalkeeper Emma Cochran will look to continue her hot-streak against America East competition, allowing just 1.46 goals this season, including just 1.12 per game against East Division foes this season. Cochran has also tallied a league-best save percentage of .791, only allowing nine goals with 34 saves this season.
 
The Pacific counters with the 13^th best offense nationally in goals per game (3.00), while the Tigers rank seventh in the country in assists per game with 2.88.
 
The winner of the Maine-Pacific game will play the winner of the Stanford-UMass Lowell contest on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. All America East Championship games will be broadcasted live on AmericaEast.TV. Follow @UMaineFH on Twitter for live updates.
 
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