ORONO – Maria Lewis, the women’s hockey coach at the University of Maine, was placed on paid administrative leave pending an NCAA compliance investigation.

The school made the announcement late Tuesday afternoon. Margaret Nagle, the senior director of public relations and operations, said “at this point the statement is all we can say” because personnel issues are confidential.

According to the statement, the NCAA was notified of the possible violation of a bylaw restricting “the number of hours student-athletes spend in activities directed or supervised by coaching staff.”

Lewis is entering her fourth season as head coach in Orono. The Black Bears are coming off a 5-24-4 season that included a 2-16-3 record in Hockey East.

The previous winter, Maine enjoyed a winning record (17-11-6, 11-8-2) for the only time since 2005-06, reached the Hockey East quarterfinals and Lewis was named the league’s co-coach of the year.

A volunteer assistant at Maine in 1999-2000, Lewis returned to Orono as head coach after three years as an assistant at the University of North Dakota.

MEN’S SOCCER

THOMAS 6, SOUTHERN MAINE 0: Kenny Cano scored twice as Thomas (3-2) used six second-half goals to beat the Huskies (0-6-1) at Gorham.

Dakota Duplissie opened the scoring 2:29 into the second half. Joshua Phelps and Guled Guled upped the lead to 3-0 before Cano added his two. Kevin Parsons’ scored in the final second.

Terriers goalies Mikkail Crockwell and Winston Trott didn’t face a shot on net. Adam Verreault made six saves for Southern Maine.

WOMEN’S SOCCER

ST. JOSEPH’S 1, THOMAS 0: Lauren Chouinard dribbled just inside the box and buried a shot past goalkeeper Kate Thibodeau on the far post side 20 minutes into the second half, providing the difference as St. Joseph’s’ (5-1) beat the Terriers (2-4) at Waterville.

Thibodeau made eight saves. Jaci Lorenzen of the Monks made four saves.

COLBY 2, UNIVERSITY OF NEW ENGLAND 1: Amanda Findlay scored just before the half on a deflected shot from the right edge of the box, and Annie Papadellis scored on a low shot to the far corner a minute into the second half to give Colby (1-2) a 2-0 lead over the Nor’easters (4-3) at Biddeford.

Margaret Palmer scored for UNE with five minutes left.

Emily Brook made six saves for Colby and Gina Iannazzi five for the Nor’easters.

FIELD HOCKEY

BOWDOIN 9, SOUTHERN MAINE 1: Bowdoin (3-1) scored six goals in the second half to overwhelm Southern Maine (3-4) at Brunswick.

The eighth-ranked Polar Bears have 34 consecutive home victories and have won 11 straight against the Huskies.

Colleeen Finnerty started the scoring for Bowdoin at 11:33. Kate Riley scored off her own rebound two minutes later and Pam Herter added a goal at 23:48 to give the Polar Bears a 3-0 lead at the half. Riley and Herter added second-half goals.

Leanne Reichert of USM scored on a turnaround shot from the center of the circle in the final minute.

MEN’S BASKETBALL

NIT: Arizona, Duke, Alabama and Rutgers are the four seeds for the NIT Season Tip-Off.

In the regional matchups, Fairleigh Dickinson is at Arizona and Rhode Island plays Metro State; Duke will host UNC Asheville and East Carolina faces Norfolk State; Alabama hosts Stillman and Georgia State meets McNeese State; and Canisius is at Rutgers and Elon meets Drexel.

FOOTBALL

NEBRASKA: Quarterback Taylor Martinez missed practice, putting his availability for Saturday’s game against South Dakota State in question.

 

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