BIDDEFORD — For the first time in three seasons, the University of New England men’s golf team failed to win a tournament title last year.

This fall, coach Kasey Keenan is hoping a blend of talent, depth and an ever-growing amount of experience can get the Nor’easters back to their winning ways.

Not that it’s going to be easy.

UNE loses its three most-experienced players from last year’s team in seniors Mat Brown, Tyler Moody and Andy Emery, a trio that had played 90 percent of the team’s tournaments over their four years and as freshmen were the bedrock of the Nor’easters Maine Intercollegiate Championship-winning squad.

That makes the three returning cogs from last year’s team ”“ junior Paul Butkevich and sophomores Sam Kinasewich and Ryan Mahoney ”“ all the more crucial.

Butkevich was one of the team’s most consistent players last fall, playing in a team-high nine events and compiling a scoring average of 82.23 in 13 rounds.

Kinasewich and Mahoney were also impressive in their first season of collegiate golf as each earned second team all-Commonwealth Coast Conference honors. Kinasewich was the team’s best overall player, posting a team-low 80.9 scoring average in 10 competitive rounds, while Mahoney averaged an 82.0 in 12 rounds and was UNE’s low-scorer at the CCC conference championships with a combined two-round score of 154.

“There’s a big void coming into the year in terms of tournament experience,” said Keenan, a Presque Isle native and former three-sport athlete at UNE entering his 10th season as the school’s head golf coach.

“We’re going to be heavily reliant on Paul and Sam and Ryan. Those are the three players who last year, and for Paul over the past two years, have the most experience coming back. They’re going to be in charge of leading us in practices and getting us ready, and playing in the majority of our matches and hopefully leading by example as well.”

The Nor’easters will also receive a boost in the return of senior Jared Melman, who as a sophomore was the team’s low-scorer in three of the five tournaments he played in.

Also a hockey player, injuries limited Melman to just a single tournament last year, but Keenan is hoping for a bounce-back season from the senior, who despite the loss of nearly all of last year is still one of the team’s most-experienced players.

“My hope is that he can get back to being like the player he was a sophomore and keep these injuries at bay, because he can definitely help us out this year,” Keenan said.

The three other returners are sophomores Troy Eaton, Ben Wyman and Dan Nadeau, who among them played just two competitive rounds in tournaments last season; they’ll be joined by freshmen Ben McCullough and Jack Clark and Nichols College transfer Evan Ryan in rounding out the roster.

“We’ve got some depth and we’ve got some talent,” Keenan said. “It’s just a matter of having the guys get each other better in practice every day, so when the tournaments start up everyone is playing well, because the tournaments come rapid fire when we start. If we’re not playing up to par by then, it’s tough to figure it out once we get into tournament play. These next couple of weeks will be a real key for us.”

Keenan said the main goal behind his team’s preseason, currently in full-swing, is to continually allow his player’s short games of chipping and putting around the greens to improve, as well as give each player a chance to hone the mental aspect of their game.

They’re helped in that aspect by the fact that the team’s home course of Cape Arundel Golf Club in Kennebunkport, known for its shorter distances but constant winds, strategically-placed hazards and small, unforgiving and undulating greens, is perfectly suited for that kind of thinking-your-way-around-the-course approach Keenan wants to instill.

“A lot of the stuff we’re going to be doing with them is the mental approach to the game,” Keenan said. “I want them out there thinking differently than maybe they have playing in the summer or playing in high school. We get them thinking in terms of course management ”“ when they’re hitting a certain shot, why they’re hitting a certain club, where they want to miss if they miss. We take a lot of time on that each day.”

Another crucial factor in favor of UNE this fall is the location of the conference qualifier tournament, which the Nor’easters will host for the first time at Cape Arundel on Sept. 18.

With just four of the seven teams advancing on to the CCC championship tournament in the spring, playing at its home course ”“ which Keenan called a “totally different course than anything else they play” ”“ could be of major assistance.

“Clearly that’s a huge advantage in course knowledge and knowing what clubs to hit and how the greens are going to roll,” Keenan said. “We’ve got a leg up but we’ve played tournaments there in the past few years where we haven’t beaten teams, so you’ve still got to go out and play and execute. Hopefully we can take advantage of that.”

But before that, the Nor’easters will open the season at the UMaine Farmington Invitational at the Sunday River Golf Club in Newry on Sept. 11, with the Maine Intercollegiate Championship tournament following two days later at the Bangor Municipal Golf Course.

Other important dates include Sept. 30, when UNE will host its annual Invitational at Cape Arundel, and the fall-ending New England Championships in Brewster, Massachusetts on Oct. 26-27.

“We’re at the point now where we want to have a chance to compete and win every match,” Keenan said. “That’s probably not a reality for any golf team, but that’s our goal.”

—Staff Writer Cameron Dunbar can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 323 or cdunbar@journaltribune.com.