The ultimate goal for the University of Maine women’s basketball team is a berth in the NCAA Tournament.

Next season, the winding road to the NCAAs will take coach Sharon Versyp’s Black Bears all the way to Hawaii with stops in Wisconsin, Iowa, Indiana and Kansas along the way.

UMaine on Tuesday announced its challenging 2003-04 schedule, one that could match the Bears against as many as six teams that made postseason tournament appearances last winter.

UMaine’s 10-game non-conference slate features the season-opening trip to Honolulu, where the Bears will face PAC-10 power and NCAA tourney entry Washington and either Lipscomb or Hawaii, which along with UMaine, played in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament.

UMaine returns home for the Dead River Co. Classic and will face Columbia in the first round on Nov. 28 and either WNIT participant Marquette or Oakland University (Mich.) in the second round.

The Bears’ early December schedule includes a string of three road games against NCAA tourney team Wisconsin-Green Bay, Drake and Indiana in a span of eight days. UMaine then will host Rider and Southern Methodist before completing non-league play at Wichita State.

“I feel our non-conference schedule will prepare us for our conference season and, hopefully, for the postseason opportunities that lie beyond,” Versyp said. “There’s no question that this is the most challenging schedule that our program has faced in quite some time.”

UMaine also must deal with an expanded, 18-game America East schedule necessitated by the addition of Maryland-Baltimore County. UMaine plays UMBC Feb. 22 at the Augusta Civic Center.

The Bears return five starters and 10 letterwinners off the squad that went 25-6 and earned a spot in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament last season.

UM women picked 5th in AE poll

The UMaine women’s soccer team, which returns 10 starters this season, has been picked to finish fifth in the America East women’s soccer preseason coaches poll released Tuesday.

Coach Scott Atherley’s Bears received one first-place vote and 48 points in the sampling of the league’s 10 head coaches.

Defending conference champ Hartford was the No. 1 pick, with seven first-place votes and 89 points. The Hawks were followed by Boston University (3 first-place votes, 71 points), No. 3 New Hampshire (61) and fourth-place Stony Brook (51).

Northeastern (43 points), Binghamton (36), Vermont (24), Maryland-Baltimore County (22) and Albany (11) rounded out the final five spots.

UMaine was 7-8-1 last season, including a 3-4-1 league record, and features AE Defensive Player of the Year Linda Consolante.

Richardson new UMF coach

Jenna Richardson has been named the new women’s cross country coach at the University of Maine-Farmington.

Richardson, a Waterville native and a recent graduate of Brown University, was an All-Ivy League competitor in the 5K and 10K and helped the Bears reach the NCAA Division I cross country nationals in each of her last three seasons.

Richardson is employed as the outreach coordinator for the China Region Lakes Alliance.