ORONO, Maine — America East Conference play will begin for the University of Maine soccer team on Sunday when the Stony Brook Seawolves visit Mahaney Diamond.
 
After the game, fans of all ages are invited to Meet the Black Bears! There will be free posters provided for the post game autograph session.
 
GAME INFORMATION
Maine Black Bears vs. Stony Brook Seawolves
DATE: Sunday, Sept. 24, 2017
TIME: 1 p.m.
SITE: Mahaney Diamond – Orono, Maine (artificial surface)
2017 RECORDS: Maine 2-5-1, Stony Brook 4-6-0
LIVE VIDEO: ESPN3
LIVE STATS: GoBlackBears.com
TWITTER: @BlackBearSoccer
 
About the Black Bears
• UMaine traveled to Cornell on Sept. 16 and came up short, 1-0, in the final non-conference test of the season.
• Annalena Kriebisch tied a season and career-high by making eight saves between the pipes for the Black Bears.
• The Black Bears got their ninth-straight win over Marist, 2-1, on Sept. 10 after Kayla Brace converted a penalty kick in the ninth minute and Kendra Ridley finished a corner in the 72nd.
• Kriebisch (2-5-1) has earned two shutouts and sports a 1.32 goals against average, good for seventh in the conference, and a .804 save percentage, which is good for sixth in the league.
• Brace leads the Black Bears with two goals and one assist for five points while Nicole Bailey has four points on one goal and two assists and Ridley has one goal and one assist for three points.
• Mikayla Morin and Olivia Bamford have also found the back of the net for UMaine this year with their first collegiate goals and Charlotte Messer earned her first career point with an assist against Marist.
 
About Stony Brook
• The Sea Wolves won their second-straight game on Friday with a 4-0 win over Sacred Heart to enter conference play with an overall record of 4-6-0.
• Stony Brook got its third win of the season on Sept. 17 with a 6-0 win over Wagner, with all six of their goals coming from the class of 2021.
• Alyssa Francese netted a hat trick while Rachel Florenz had a brace and Kimmy Chavkin tipped in a goal as well.
• Florenz leads the team with 11 points on five goals and one assist while Francese has eight points on four goals.
• Sofia Manner (3-6-0) has seen the majority of minutes in goal for Stony Brook, posting a 1.14 goals against average, .792 save percentage and one shutout.
• The Seawolves, led by Brendan Faherty in his second season, were tabbed to finish fourth in the preseason coaches' poll.
                                                   
The Series with Stony Brook
• The Seawolves won last year's battle, 2-0, to grab a slight edge in the all-time series at 12-11-1.
• UMaine still holds a lead in overall scoring at 48-37.
• Each team has had a three-game winning-streak at some point in the series.
• The squads first met in 1992, with the Seawolves taking that game, 3-2.
 
A Win Would…
• Move the Black Bears to 3-5-1 and even the all-time series at 12-12-1.
• Give head coach Scott Atherley a career record of 146-137-43 at the helm of the UMaine women's team.
 
Common Opponents
• UMaine and Stony Brook both took on Northeastern, UMass and Bryant during their non-conference slates.
• The Black Bears suffered defeats against Northeastern (0-3), UMass (1-2 OT) and Bryant (1-2).
• The Seawolves lost to Northeastern (0-1) and Bryant (0-1) but topped UMass (2-0).
 
Stat Line

Category	Maine	Stony Brook
Goals per game	.86	1.60
Shots per game	8.7	12.8
Shots on goal %	.410	.539

 About Head Coach Scott Atherley
• Now in his 25th season as a head coach in the NCAA, Scott Atherley is entering his 19th season as the Maine women's soccer program's head coach.
• Atherley has led the Black Bears to five-straight America East postseason tournaments and to 13 of the last 14 overall.
• In 1993, Atherley became head coach of the UMaine men's team and took on head coaching duties of the women's team in 1999, coaching both squads that year.
• Atherley was a four-year letter-winner at UMaine between 1984 and 1987, serving as captain during his final season.
 
Rising Ridley
• Kendra Ridley has tallied three points this year on one goal and one assist, gaining those points in consecutive games for her first career point-streak.
• The assist, which came on Sept. 7 against Bryant, was the first one of her career.
• Both of Ridley's career goals have been game winners, with her maiden tally last year against UMass-Lowell giving the Black Bears a 1-0 win.
 
First Time for Everything
• Kendra Ridley's assist on Sept. 7 against Bryant was the first of the senior captain's career.
• Three of UMaine's goals so far in 2017 have come off of the foot of a first-time goal scorer.
• Freshman Olivia Bamford netted the first of her career on Sept. 3 against UMass with her first minute tally while sophomore Nicole Bailey earned her first career helper on the play.
• Sophomore Kayla Brace saved her first career goal for a game-winner, as the sophomore found the net in the 84th minute of UMaine's 1-0 win over Holy Cross on Aug. 31.
• Against Brown, junior Mikayla Morin was able to head home the ball in the second half for her very first tally.
 
Ironwomen
• Senior defender Amy Falkin and sophomore goalkeeper Annalena Kriebisch are the only Black Bears to have played every single minute this season.
• Each player has logged 749 minutes through the first eight games of the season.
• As a team, UMaine has 11 players that have logged at least 500 minutes.
• Emilie Andersen and Kendra Ridley have both played more than 700 minutes while Mikayla Morin has logged 670.
 
Canadian Connection
• Sophomore Kayla Brace's game-winning score against Holy Cross on Aug. 31 was assisted by her classmate and fellow Canadian, Nicole Bailey.
• For Brace, who hails from Lewis Lake, Nova Scotia, it was her first career goal and point.
• For the Nepean, Ontario native, Bailey, it marked her first career assist.
 
A Night of Firsts at Brown
• Junior Mikayla Morin scored the first goal of her career at Brown, heading the ball home in the 77th minute.
• The Aug. 25 match at Brown marked the first time in the now six-game series that the winning team did not earn a shutout.
• Maine held Brown without a shot on frame in the first half, marking the first time in nine games (Sept. 21, 2016) that Brown was held without a shot on goal in a full half.
 
First Tie in a Long Time
• Maine's 0-0 tie with LIU Brooklyn in the Aug. 20 season-opener marked the first time that the Black Bears have ever had a tie on opening day.
• It was also the program's first tie since a 1-1 affair with rival New Hampshire on Oct. 29, 2015.
• The most ties that Maine has ever had in a season is seven in 2008.
 
International Appeal
• The Black Bears have four different countries represented on the team roster in the United States, Canada, Norway and Germany.
• Maine has three players each that hail from Maine and Connecticut, and one each from New York, Georgia, Florida and New Hampshire.
 • There are three Canadian provinces represented with four players coming from Ontario, three from Nova Scotia and one from Quebec.
• There is a three-payer European contingent, with two players hailing from Norway and one from Germany.
 
Oh Captain, My Captain
• Kendra Ridley will serve as the captain for the Black Bears this season, marking the third-straight year that the Ottawa, Ontario native will wear the armband.
 
Up Next
• The Black Bears continue conference play by traveling to Hartford on Thursday, Sept. 28 before returning home on Oct. 1 to host UMBC.

-UMaine-