Sitting at 5-3-3 on the season and first in the America East conference standings, the University of Maine women’s soccer team has had a lot of success this year — success they can largely attribute to starting sophomore goalkeeper Lauren Swant.

Swant’s poised play in net this year for the Black Bears has her giving up on average only .8 goals per game in 10 contests. She has also pitched four shutouts along the way. Her youthful and active presence in goal this season will make her team a threat for the America East conference title.

“The expectations I had for my team have been very accurate,” Swant said.

“I think that the team has improved from last year, and even in the last 10 games we have played. We have to work on our mentality going into our next few games, and set little goals for each individual game to help us complete the challenges ahead of us.”

The challenges ahead of the Black Bears are five conference foes, and their performance in these matchups will make the difference in who is crowned conference champion. The road won’t be easy, but Swant and the Black Bears are ready.

“My goal for the remainder of the season is to take each game, game by game,” Swant said.

“Taking things slow, game by game, will ultimately get us to our biggest goal of winning the America East Championship, which is definitely in our reach.”

The struggle of taking the season game by game and focusing on your team’s capability of winning the conference title begins in the same place as it does for every student athlete: juggling school, sports and free time.

Swant, a psychology student at UMaine, can see the difficulties even as a sophomore.

“I always have a practice or a game to be at or school work to be finished, just a constantly busy schedule,” Swant said.

Being able to balance school and sports was the least of Swant’s worries entering this season. Her performance after coming off of an ACL and meniscus tear that lead to surgery last October was what mattered most to her. What she’s accomplished this year after her eight month long rehab process makes her play this year even more special.

“A lot of people may look at my knee injury as a negative, or a setback, but I look at it as a positive and how it has made me stronger as a player and a person,” Swant said. “For me, not playing for eight months was the longest I had not played soccer my entire life. I couldn’t have missed it more. Every opportunity I had to continue moving forward in the rehabbing process, I made sure I did.”

Through this long and difficult rehab process, Swant has progressed physically and mentally into the star the Black Bears are proud to have for two more seasons.

“Everything I did I made sure I did right; every single rep and every aspect of training properly because I knew one day in the future it would pay off,” Swant said.

Swant also found a transformation in character during the preseason this year, where she made the most of her opportunities and earned the starting role in net for the Black Bears.

“I think that going into preseason and having two-a-day practices pushed me mentally and physically. Having pushed myself through that, taking every practice and every moment playing as an opportunity and a privilege, that’s when I saw myself excel. As I continued to watch myself grow as a player and person, I saw my performance on the field improve because I was a lot more confident with the player I had become.”

“Confidence leads to consistency,” she added. “I think being a consistent player is a strong quality for anyone to have.”

Swant is confident and consistent, and the Black Bears look to ride her success through these last five games in hopes of winning their first America East conference title ever.