The 2026 America East women’s soccer quarterfinals featured a pair of shutouts as No. 4 Maine and No. 6 UMBC both posted clean sheets to advance to Sunday’s semifinals.
In the first matchup of the day, a UMBC cross deflected off a Vermont defender in overtime to give the Retrievers a 1-0 victory over the No. 3 Catamounts while No. 4 Maine scored once in each half to beat No. 6 UAlbany, 2-0.
The semifinals commence on Sunday with No. 1 Binghamton hosting No. 5 UMBC at 1 p.m. while No. 2 Bryant will welcome No. 3 Maine for a 4:30 p.m. matchup. The Bearcats and Retrievers played to a scoreless tie back in October while Bryant beat Maine, 1-0, in their regular-season matchup.
Quarterfinal Recap
No. 5 UMBC 1, No. 4 Vermont 0 (OT)
- The Retrievers broke the scoreless deadlock 2:41 into overtime to advance to the America East semifinals for the first time since 2014.
- UMBC and Vermont played 90 minutes of scoreless soccer with the Catamounts controlling play by outshooting the Retrievers 19-3.
- Vermont had the best scoring chance of the first half in the 35th minute as Della Weir put a bouncing ball on net with the goalie out of position, but Olivia Nardone deflected it out to keep the contest scoreless.
- In the OT, Brooke Clagett made a move on the UVM endline and was able to cross to the middle of six, where a Catamount defender deflected the ball into the back of their own net.
- Amara Codd finished with four saves to earn the win, while Sophia Kling took the loss with two saves.
No. 3 Maine 2, No. 6 UAlbany 0
- Isabella Meadows' first-half tally proved to be the difference as Maine advanced to the semifinals for the fourth-straight year.
- With the win, the Black Bears extended their America East Championship unbeaten streak to eight games (7-0-1).
- Maine scored in the eighth minute when Audrey Palmer came down the left side and found Meadows, a first-team All-Conference selection, in the box, who buried a shot just 7:42 into the contest.
- The Black Bears extended the lead to 2-0 in the 83rd minute as Sandrine Brault fought off a defender on a cross into the box and was able to flick the ball home over the charging goalkeeper.
- Elena Barenberg made five saves in net for the shutout victory while Claudia Volino took the loss while making five stops.
Stay up-to-date on the tournament by visiting Championship Central for streaming and live stats links as well as box scores, highlights and recaps following each round in addition to team information, tournament history and more.
Follow @AmericaEast on X (Formerly Twitter) to get the real-time championship updates. Use the #AEChamps and #AEWSOC hashtags to join the conversation.
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Founded in 1979, the America East Conference is an elite NCAA Division I athletic conference that fosters an environment for student-athletes to become champions. Comprised of academically renowned, like-minded member institutions located in the Northeast region of the United States, America East is committed to broad-based excellence and progressive in its approach to supporting its more than 3,500 student-athletes across 18 sponsored sports. For more information, visit www.AmericaEast.com and follow the America East Conference and its social media channels, @AmericaEast.
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