There were plenty of growing pains for Travers Evans in his first season as the head coach of the University of Maine men’s soccer team.

Five goals and one tie was all the Bears had to show for their nine America East games. Maine was 3-11-2 overall.

But the adjustment from high school soccer to Division I is significant. There’s much less time to make decisions with the ball and the play is much more physical.

Seven freshmen started Maine’s last four games and Evans feels the experience they obtained last fall, combined with what he considers to be a talented recruiting class, will elevate the Bears into playoff contention.

Maine will be shooting for its first America East playoff berth since 1994.

The chore has been made a tad easier by the fact the league has expanded its playoff format from four to six teams with the addition of two new New York schools: Albany and Stony Brook. The league will have 12 teams this fall.

“I have very high expectations for this year,” said the 30-year-old Evans. “We return a young talented team. The players who came in last year received significant playing time so they should be that much better. And we’ve brought in really solid players who should contribute right away.

“I will be very disappointed if we don’t contend for a playoff spot,” added Evans, who is assisted by Peter Rivard. “We will have very good speed. I consider us a fast, athletic, technical team. We won’t be a team of big bruising players. We will play a fast, attractive style.”

Depth is expected to be another positive.

“Nobody is out of the picture at this juncture. The top 11 players will start. It will be very, very competitive,” said Evans, who has eight Maine natives on his roster.

Maine will return nine players who started at least 10 games a year ago.

He expects a lot more goals from his Bears despite the loss of leading scorer Russell Hutchison (6 goals, 2 assists).

“It will be more of a scoring-by-committee approach. We have a lot of people capable of attacking and scoring goals. We’ll spread the wealth around. That will make us a much harder team to defend because the other teams won’t be able to key on one central figure,” said Evans.

His recruiting class includes “a lot of talented attacking players” and he anticipates his sophomores finishing scoring chances they failed to convert a year ago.

Sophomore striker-midfielder Rob Dow, who had three goals and two assists as the team’s second-leading scorer, heads up the list of returnees. He will play in the Canada Games this week.

Striker Chris O’Connor and midfielder Greg Bajek had two goals and two assists apiece as freshman last fall and should improve on those numbers.

Newcomers Kyle McMorrow of Waterville, Jason Brennan and Matthew Bernal were all-state players in their respective states and should help the attack. McMorrow and Bernal will be midfielders while Brennan is a striker.

Brunswick’s Eric Lemont and Luke Rivard and East Harpswell’s Jack Rioux will also vie for midfield slots in the 3-5-2 alignment along with Luke Garner, Justin Woycke, Keith Moore, Tony Stack and Mike Manfre. Manfre could also be a striker.

In the back, veterans Matt Young, Scott Showalter and Patrick Kelly should supply defensive stability along with goalie Matt Cosgriff, the team’s only senior.

Freshman Troy Walz of Portland and Jason Souzer of Sanford and redshirt sophomore Kevin Bunker of Augusta provide depth in the back; newcomers Adam Maciazczyk and Josh Sjostrom will back up Cosgriff in goal and Searsport’s Joe Light will vie for playing time up front.

Dow, O’Connor, Bajek, Manfre, Showalter, Young, Garner, Lemont and Cosgriff started at least 10 games last fall.

Maine begins practice next week and opens at the University of Rhode Island on Sept. 1.

MAINE MEN’S SOCCER SCHEDULE

SEPTEMBER

1, at Rhode Island*, 7 p.m.

3, vs. Quinnipiac*, noon

9, at Sacred Heart, 3 p.m.

11, at Holy Cross, 3 p.m.

16, at Central Connecticut State, 1 p.m.

22, at Massachusetts, 1 p.m.

29, at Harvard, noon

OCTOBER

2, New Hampshire, 3 p.m.

5, at Albany, 3 p.m.

7, Stony Brook, noon

12, at Northeastern, 6 p.m.

14, at Boston University, 1 p.m.

19, Hartford, 3 p.m.

21, Vermont, noon

26, at Delaware, 7 p.m.

28, at Towson, noon

NOVEMBER

2, Hofstra, 2 p.m.

4, Drexel, noon

*at University of Rhode Island Tournament