LEWISTON, Maine -- Joe Vari last coached the Bates women's soccer team in an actual match on October 29, 2019, when Bates earned a 0-0 draw with rival Colby. This Tuesday, the Bobcats take the pitch again when they welcome Maine Maritime Academy to town for an 8pm match under the lights at Garcelon Field.

"Maine Maritime Academy is a good club and a good school," Vari said. "They won their conference tournament in 2019 so they've got a team that has NCAA tournament experience. It's going to be a good test for us, but our goal will be evaluating how we're executing the things we're doing in preseason on the offensive and defensive sides." 

Last season the Bobcats took the pandemic year to look inward, something Vari hopes pays off this season.

"We're young enough to the point where we are in the developmental phase, where we're just trying to focus on ourselves and really deal with the things that we have in-house and go that direction," Vari said. "I really think the COVID year was a big silver lining for us; we just tried to imprint onto our group what we want to be able to do."

The most experienced player on the Bobcats is senior goalkeeper Kat Nuckols (Los Angeles), who took a leave of absence in 2020 in order to return this fall. She has played since her first year in 2017 and accumulated 978:10 minutes in goal, making 70 saves on the season for a save percentage of 72.2% in 2019. 

"She's the only player that has three years of experience on a 33-player roster," Vari said. "We're ecstatic to have Kat back and she's been great for this program obviously for all these years. We're really happy with the direction that she's helping our players go in and she continues to be a big contributor on the team."

Fellow seniors Annie Doig (Wayne, Pa.) and Lauren Berube (Auburn, Maine) anchor an experienced Bobcat defense while forward Sophie Matt (New Albany, Ohio) rounds out the class of 2022.

"Even though they're the smallest class that we have on the roster, they bring the most for us in a sense," Vari said. "Not to take anything away from our younger players as leaders, but that's a good nucleus." 

On offense, the Bobcats are led by junior midfielder Elizabeth Patrick (Ipswich, Mass.), who scored a pair of goals as a first-year and is a "spark plug" according to Vari. 

"We've been really happy with the direction the junior class is going when it comes to leadership," Vari said. "We really believe that every player on our team is a leader, and we really try and preach that. EP is just one of those players that's a little bit more comfortable telling people her opinion." 

The junior class is particularly deep, with Patrick, forward Addy Armah (Accra, Ghana), forward Siggy Fitzgerald (Sudbury, Mass.), midfielder Cece Pilgrim (North Kingstown, R.I.), defender Joanna Cloutier (Portland, Ore.) and midfielder Shelby Howard (Ashland, Mass.) all having played in at least 10 matches as first-years in 2019. Armah tallied a goal and an assist her rookie season.

As for the sophomores and first-years, it's anyone's guess as to how they will respond to their first seasons of collegiate soccer. The sophomores are still learning about other aspects of Bates as well.

"It's been really funny to talk to them because now we've got two classes that have actually really never been through a fall," Vari said. "We had the team over for dinner at our house, and we're talking about Convocation coming up. And the sophomores were like, 'What's Convocation? We have no idea.'"

The younger Bobcats who debut Tuesday will play a crucial role in the success of the team.

"It's going to be difficult for us to come up with a starting 11, which is a good problem to have," Vari said. "I feel like it's going to be something where we're going to have a group consistently competing for starting positions, and ideally that's what we want. So hopefully that will breed a little bit of the competition within our group."

"Obviously to survive a NESCAC season, the depth pieces are quite vital and that's going to help us along."