ORONO — The Maine Women’s Basketball team has been hard at work this summer in Memorial Gym, laying the foundation for the 2025-26 season.
Maine is coming off a season that saw them fall to Albany in the America East semifinal’s as they finished with a 15-16 overall record.
The Black Bears graduated six seniors, which on a college basketball roster is nearly half the team. So this summer has been all about gelling as a unit, which is why they’re here during summer break.
“It’s really just about developing team chemistry, getting that compete level up, getting them in shape and competing against each other,” said Maine head coach Amy Vachon. “But really to develop that team chemistry. We have seven new kids, a lot of new players, so getting to know each other on and off the court.”
The Black Bears welcome seven total newcomers, five freshman and two transfers. Which is much larger than the standard recruiting class over the past few years for Maine, but they say the transition period has gone more than smoothly.
“We have five freshman and they’re aggressive,” said Maine senior forward and 2022-23 America East POTY Adrianna Smith. “They’re coming in, they’re ready to learn. We have two transfers and they’re ready to go. They’re experienced, they picked it up quick. I mean it’s the middle of August, we’ve been here six weeks, one of our transfers two and a half and we’re already able to run our offense at a pretty high rate.”
“There’s something about freshman coming in or even transfers with their big eyes,” said Vachon. “It’s new, everything is new to them. They’ve been working hard and they fit right in. They’re great, so it’s been a lot of fun.”