Belfast Area High School graduate Sarah Woods was one of the captains this season for the Saint Anselm College field hockey team, which won the NCAA Division II national championship on Sunday in South Carolina. Jim Stankiewicz/Courtesy of Saint Anselm College Athletics

Carolyn King-Robitaille was thankful for the Thanksgiving holiday, simply to catch up on some rest.

“There’s still a processing happening, maybe just because I’m so tired,” King-Robitaille said with a laugh.

King-Robitaille, the head coach of the Saint Anselm College field hockey team, spent the early part of the week recovering from the program’s first national championship. The Hawks (18-6), who have a strong contingent of Maine high school players on the roster, beat Kutztown University 1-0 on a goal by Maddie Davis in overtime in the NCAA Division II final Sunday in Gaffney, South Carolina.

“It’s still kind of hard to believe,” King-Robitaille said. “It’s amazing … This year’s group was the most well-rounded. You couldn’t pick out any one person from the lineup, per se. Any given day, someone had a big day, and it was really hard to match up against us because of how unselfish we play. And this was one of the best passing teams we’ve ever had.”

Though Saint Anselm is based in Manchester, New Hampshire, its roster has a Maine feel. Senior back Sarah Woods, one of the Hawks’ three captains, is a Belfast Area High graduate. Seniors Ava Rayfield (8 goals, 2 assists) of Foxcroft Academy and Abby Breznyak (2 goals, 4 assists), a Messalonskee graduate, started every game. Junior Lili Stone (Scarborough) and freshman Sophie Smith (Yarmouth) are also on the roster.

“I love the Maine kids,” King-Robitaille said. “I think there’s a grittiness with the kids from Maine, a go-to-work mentality. They don’t expect anything, they’re just trying to do the best they can. When you live up there and have to play in those (weather) conditions, and you have to travel; if you’re on a club team, you’re traveling and sacrificing a lot to play at the highest level.

“What also helps is, they don’t want to (go to college) far from home. This is a place where their parents and their family can come and watch them play, but it’s far enough away where they can get a good college experience away from home.”

King-Robitaille has strong ties to Maine. A forward at Bates College from 2003-06, she served three additional years with the Bobcats as an assistant coach before moving on to SUNY Cortland in New York, where she was a graduate assistant from 2010-11. She was hired as head coach at Saint Anselm in 2012.

“I spent a lot of time in Lewiston, that’s where my wife (Ashley) is from,” King-Robitaille said. “That’s my second home.”

King-Robitaille has turned the Hawks into a powerhouse in her 12 years, leading the program to a 169-76 record, with two trips to the Division II national championship game (Saint Anselm fell 2-1 to West Chester in the 2019 final).

And, according to King-Robitaille, the Maine pipeline will be replenished next season.

“We have four more (Maine) freshmen coming in next year,” she said.

AFTER GOING 9-15 last season, the Bowdoin College men’s basketball team is off to a 5-0 start.

The Polar Bears went into Thanksgiving break with a 78-33 victory over Maine Maritime (3-2) on Tuesday at Morrell Gymnasium in Brunswick. Freshman Ray Cuevas led Bowdoin with 18 points, while junior Will Logue added 12 points.

Fourth-year head coach Alex Lloyd has credited a defensive focus in aiding the strong start.

“It’s a great start to the season, the guys have worked very hard,” Lloyd said. “We’ve had a really committed group trying to guard and trying to do it collectively.”

“We’ve been setting a standard for how we want to play defense,” added senior guard James McGowan. “We’ve really stuck to that, and we keep pushing communicating well (on defense), sliding and helping each other, which has been huge this year.”

Bowdoin men’s basketball head coach Alex Lloyd draws up a play while the team huddles during a timeout Tuesday against Maine Maritime in Brunswick. The Polar Bears are 5-0 after a 78-33 win. Dave Dyer/Kennebec Journal

Bowdoin has a strong mix of experience and youth on its roster, led by McGowan (9.4 points per game) and fellow senior Afamdi Achufusi (4.8 rebounds per game). Cuevas, a guard from Ipswich, Massachusetts, is averaging 14.2 points.

“I’ve been really happy with (Cuevas),” Lloyd said. “His approach has been good every day. He comes to work, trying to get better every day and he fits in really well. We have a group that likes to share the ball, that likes to help the other guys play well. That’s a lot of fun.”

“With a lot of freshmen, they come in and it’s a big learning curve,” McGowan said. “They’ve adapted extremely well and made a huge impact. They’re not scared to be out there and they want to be out there. They know what they’re in there to do and they go out and do it.”

The Polar Bears seek their first trip to the New England Small College Athletic Conference playoffs since 2021-22. Bowdoin returns to action at 2 p.m. Sunday at Husson.

QUINN NEWTON, a former standout at Thornton Academy and St. Joseph’s College, was hired in the offseason to be the men’s basketball coach at UMaine-Farmington. He replaces Sam Leal, who left to take over at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, after leading the Beavers to a 53-25 record over four seasons, including a trip to the North Atlantic Conference title game in 2023.

Newton, 28, was a two-time Southwestern Maine Activities Association first-team all-star at Thornton. Newton played at St. Joseph’s from 2014-18, and averaged 16.3 points and 6.4 rebounds during the 2015-16 season.

This is Newton’s first head coaching position. He served as an assistant at Huntingdon College in Alabama, Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, Bates College and the University of Southern Maine. He’s joined on the sidelines by longtime UMF assistant Jim Bessey, as well as first-year assistant Marcus Christopher, a former Skowhegan and USM standout.

The Beavers are 1-5. They lost to St. Joseph’s, 118-78, on Tuesday. Freshman Zach McLaughlin, a Hampden Academy graduate, is averaging 16 points per game, followed by senior guard Simon Chadbourne (13.7 ppg), a Portland High alum.

UMF faces Southern Maine Community College at 3 p.m. Sunday in South Portland.