Last fall, the University of Maine men’s soccer team used a dramatic 4-1 win over America East regular season champion Maryland-Baltimore County on the last weekend of the regular season to earn its first post-season berth since 1994.

The Bears have 15 returnees off last year’s 7-8-4 team but were picked by the coaches to finish eighth in the 10-team league in the preseason poll.

That will serve as extra incentive for the Bears, whose sixth-place finish last fall was their best since they finished in a sixth-place tie with Northeastern in 1997.

“We like it when they pick us low. Hopefully, we’ll sneak up on some people again,” said fifth-year coach Travers Evans, the America East Coach of the Year in 2003. “We’ll use that as motivation. We feel we’re better than that. It doesn’t matter to us where we’re picked. It’s where we end up after the season.”

“We want to blow their expectations out of the water,” said senior striker Luke Rivard of Brunswick. “We’re going to go right after teams. That surprises them and a lot of times we can get a quick start.”

“Our goal is to take the next step. We want to improve on what we did last year,” said Evans whose Bears lost to Hartford in the quarterfinals.

“Last year gave us something to build on. We want to work off that and go to the next level,” agreed Rivard.

Maine is off to an 0-1-1 start with a 2-0 loss to Army and a 1-1 tie with Cal Poly.

Ellsworth’s Cooper Friend, a junior midfielder, heads up the list of returnees. He was an America East first team selection a year ago.

Friend will be the holding midfielder with seniors Kyle McMorrow of Waterville and Matt Bernal and junior Kevin Forgett alternating at the other two attacking midfield spots in Maine’s 4-3-3 alignment.

Evans can rotate seven players in the three spots up front as newcomers Joe Corey of Winslow and Jimmy Velas from Falmouth have impressed Evans. They will join veterans Rivard, Brunswick junior Kyle Vosmus, seniors Justin Stockford and Falmouth’s Andy Halligan of Falmouth and sophomore Gabriel Germano.

Germano was chosen to the America East All-Rookie Team last year.

Junior Ben Wilcox and Windham sophomore Jason Jacobe will be the center backs with Falmouth junior Eric Petersen at right back and junior Adam Chenault on the left side.

Chenault scored the goal against Cal Poly.

Redshirt freshman Kyle Nicholson and true freshman Dan Eggert will receive playing time at the outside back spots.

Workhorse Chad Mongeon, a junior, returns in goal and he will be backed up by freshmen Ben Piotrowski and Piner Markovchick. Markovchick is from Mount Vernon.

“The new guys are fitting in pretty well,” said Rivard.

Evans is hoping the team chemistry that was an important ingredient in their success last year will again prove to be a strength.

“Team chemistry goes a long way. We’ve got ability,” said Evans.

Friend and Petersen missed the first two games for violating team rules last year. Germano was sidelined due to injury.

All three will be back for Saturday’s game at UMass.