ORONO – The University of Maine made its first-ever appearance in an America East field hockey championship game last fall.

The third-seeded Bears, 14-5 overall and 4-2 in America East play, will look to go a step further beginning Friday when they face No. 2 seed New Hampshire (10-10, 5-1 in America East) in a 3:30 p.m. semifinal at Northeastern University’s Sweeney Field.

Top seed Northeastern (15-5, 6-0) will face archrival Boston University (9-10, 3-3) in the 1 p.m. semifinal.

The championship game will be Sunday at 2 p.m. at Sweeney Field.

The Bears had to replace three of their top four scorers off last year’s club and they have done so.

Maine has scored just one fewer goal than last year’s team in the same number of games and it has generated 65 more shots on goal (313-248).

“Offense hasn’t been a problem,” said senior center midfielder Karly Bundy of Kennebunk. “We have a tremendous amount of heart, hustle and hard work. Our goals aren’t the prettiest things but the ball has crossed the [goal] line and that’s all that matters.

“Everybody goes hard for 70 minutes and it has worked out for us,” added Bundy.

Senior goalie Jaye Lance said, “We had a lot of really good individual players last year but this team is stronger, overall.”

Senior center back Rebecca Ouellet said the Bears have a “lot of depth. We don’t rely on just one or two people. We’ve got a bunch of people who can score.”

The Bear players also said everybody is conscientious defensively.

“Our team defense is the best I’ve seen in my five years. Team defense has won us games. And we play it all over the field,” said Bundy.

“That has helped us deep defenders out a lot,” said Ouellet.

“That has been the biggest thing. That has really helped us,” agreed Lance. “Not only are our defenders good, our forwards play better defense [than a year ago]. So do the midfielders.”

Kix said Bundy, Lance and Ouellet have played crucial roles in their 14-win season.

“Our success is due to our senior leadership,” said Kix. “Karly Bundy has been phenomenal at center mid; Jaye has been solid in goal and Rebecca has anchored our defense and had a tremendous year.”

Rachael Hilgar is the team’s leading scorer with 12 goals and 5 assists and Bundy is next with 8 & 4.

Karyn Magno (6 & 6), Traci Rainone (6 & 2), Emily Dooling (4 & 6), Amie Dubois (4 & 6) and Jana Ouellette (4 & 2) have also had productive offensive seasons. Lance is 13-5 with a 1.62 goals-against average and a .765 save percentage.

If the Bears are to beat UNH, they will have to neutralize Katie White (21 & 2) and Jen Stamp (8 & 9).

“We’ve got to stop those two, deny their right-side attack and we’ll need to generate our own right-side attack,” said Kix. “Hopefully, we’ll play a very aggressive style and force them to make errors.”