ORONO — University of Maine women’s basketball coach Amy Vachon searched for the best word to describe graduate student Anne Simon. Determined? Motivated? Perhaps a mashup of the two.

“From the minute (Simon) decided that she wanted to come back, every ounce of everything she’s done is to be her best. Her goal is for the team, and she’s done everything she can do to help us get back to the championship,” Vachon said in reference to the America East championship game.

Top-seeded Maine (23-9) hosts No. 3 Vermont (22-10), the defending conference champion, in the Pit at 5 p.m. Friday, in a game that will be broadcast on ESPNU. The winner earns an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Maine defeated Vermont twice in the regular season, 60-48 in Orono on Jan. 6 and 57-55 at Burlington on Feb. 17.

Maine is looking for its first NCAA tournament appearance since 2019.

Last spring, after a season in which she played only 14 of Maine’s 30 games because of a severe ankle sprain, Simon decided to come back to Maine for the fifth season awarded by the NCAA to all athletes who lost time to seasons canceled or cut short because of the pandemic in 2020-21.

A native of Sandweiler, Luxembourg, Simon’s final season has been her best, and her play is a big reason why Maine is in the America East championship game for the eighth time in nine seasons.

“At the end of the day, that’s the reason I came back, because I haven’t won the championship here. That’s something on my to-do list,” Simon said. “It’s exciting we have the opportunity on Friday. I don’t want to look too far ahead, but just focus on the game.”

Last week, Simon was named America East Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year for the second time in her career, also winning both honors in 2022. She was chosen as the conference’s Player of the Week eight times in the regular season. She’s averaging career highs in points (18.9 per game), rebounds (7.4), assists (3.2) and 3-point shooting percentage (.335).

Simon, a 5-9 guard, has played all 40 minutes seven times this season, including each of the last four games. Thanks to the fifth year of eligibility awarded by the NCAA, Simon leads Maine all-time in minutes played (4,341), and she’s among the program’s leaders in several other categories. She’s sixth in scoring with 1,942 points and has a chance to pass former teammate Blanca Millán (1,974). Simon is 11th in rebounds (711), sixth in steals – just four shy of Vachon with 275 – 13th in assists (300), and fifth in 3-pointers (190).

“We’ve had a lot of great ones, and she’s one of the best who ever played here,” Vachon said.

On Monday, Simon scored 21 of her 25 points in the second half, helping spark a rally from a 10-point deficit in the third quarter for a 64-58 win over Binghamton in the conference semifinals.

“Last year, we didn’t get a lot of court time together, but leadership-wise, she was always vocal, always there. This year, being able to put all those minutes together has been really great,” said Maine junior forward Adrianna Smith, last season’s America East Player of the Year.

Prior to the start of last season, Simon knew she wanted to take advantage of the fifth season being offered by the NCAA. She just wasn’t sure it would be at Maine. As she watched most of the season from the bench, her injured ankle protected by a plastic boot, Simon began to realize Orono was where she wanted to be. When the season ended with a loss at Albany in the conference semifinals, a game in which Simon scored 23 points on 10-for-17 shooting after her late-season return to the court, her mind was almost made up.

“I wasn’t sure if I was going to come back here to Maine, but after a week or two of reflection, it was pretty clear I was going to come back,” Simon said. “I told myself last year that I want to end on a good note and have a good season, as a team and individually. Things didn’t go the way I wanted, and I was just grateful I had this opportunity to come back for a fifth year. It was an easy decision to come back here, because I didn’t want it to end the way it did last year.”

Vachon said getting any player for a fifth season is a bonus. She pointed at former point guard Dor Saar, who graduated from Maine in 2021 and went on to play a fifth season at Middle Tennessee.

“(Saar) gave us four years. She graduated from Maine. It’s a bonus year, so you can’t blame anyone if they go somewhere else,” Vachon said. “We were thrilled when (Simon) wanted to stay here. I think the injury kind of put a damper on her. She didn’t get to play the whole four years she wanted to play… She’s a winner. That’s why she came back. She wants to win.”

Vachon said Simon has improved physically and mentally since her freshman season in 2019-20, when she was named America East Rookie of the Year after stepping into a bigger role when Millán was lost for the season to a knee injury. Smith said Simon is a smart, savvy player whose basketball intuition allows her to create plays for her teammates.

“Her pull-up jumper on pick and rolls is really impressive. It makes it pretty easy for me to roll, and she’s a great passer, always seeing everything,” Smith said.

Simon said her biggest improvement has come in seeing the court, reading defenses and taking what’s available. Confidence also has improved, Simon said, and she’s not hesitant to keep shooting if the first few shots don’t fall. She hopes her work ethic is an example to her teammates.

“I hope they see me as a hardworking player. I don’t want to take a rest, either on defense or offense,” Simon said.

Simon said she plans to pursue professional basketball opportunities in Europe next season. Her run at Maine is finally ending. Her love for the game is not.

“I don’t want to stop,” Simon said.

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