Change is inevitable for any Division I athletic team. Players come and go, coaches are hired and fired and the landscape of the program is continually altered. The greatest programs absorb the changes and don’t miss a beat. The cellar-dwellers aren’t quite as fortunate and never really rise to prominence.

Somewhere in between, there exist the teams that have been building up to great success. Here is where we find the Binghamton University women’s soccer team. From last year to this year, the team has seen many challenges and many new athletes on the roster, and those new players have meshed with the existing foundation to create a championship-caliber soccer team.

PRESEASON CHALLENGES

The 2008 season was head coach Sarah McClellan’s first at the helm. She took over a team that had a 3-12-4 record the year before and achieved an 8-9-1 record. That set the stage for even greater improvements in 2009, but the new challenges were present from the very beginning, including playing 10 of its 16 regular season games on the road, a tougher schedule and the addition of 13 freshmen onto the new roster.

“We’re very young, half the team being new players,” McClellan said before the season began. “It will definitely add another dimension to our team.”

At the conclusion of the season, the team’s top two scorers were two of those freshmen: Jamie Holliday and Emily Pape, each with four goals. McClellan has used these two, as well as the other new players, to give the roster an element of strength that it didn’t have last season.

“We’re so much deeper,” McClellan said before the America East tournament about the differences between this year’s and last year’s playoff squads. “We have the abilities this year that if anyone is not having their best day, we have players all around them and on the sideline that are able to step up and perform well.”

Senior goalkeeper Jen McEachron echoed the same sentiment. “Last year this time, we were scrambling to have enough people on the field, let alone people battling for positions,” she said, also citing the injury losses on the team depleting the roster.

ROLE REVERSAL

Some players that did contribute on the roster last year are seeing different types of involvement this year. McEachron was the full-time goalkeeper in 2008, playing every minute and compiling a 1.25 goals against average. Junior goalkeeper Erin Iman made 12 starts in the 2007 season, but a shoulder injury sidelined her for the entire 2008 season.

So what do you do when you have two strong goalkeepers? While most programs would choose the better of the two, McClellan implemented a timeshare for the two keepers, playing McEachron for the first half of every game and Iman for the second half. McEachron’s goals against average improved to .70, good for second in the conference, while Iman’s stands at 1.13. The two have combined for eight shutouts so far this season.

“We have two tremendous goalkeepers that are both more than capable, and we’re taking advantage of having that luxury of having two very strong goalkeepers,” McClellan said in September.

“We’re winning games, and I think Erin and I are both doing a good job, and the defense in front of us has a lot to do with why we’re being successful,” McEachron said of the timeshare earlier this season.

Another difference in this year’s squad is seen on the other end of the field in the offensive production. Last season’s leading scorer was Dani Raske, who made the America East All-Conference Second Team and All-Rookie team with seven goals and 19 total points. This season, she has one goal and two assists, primarily because the team’s use for her is drastically different.

“She’s a true outside back, and so she only played forward for us because we were lacking forwards,” McClellan said.

But this year, the large group of younger players has provided the spark that the Bearcats needed in its offensive attack which Holliday and Pape have been integral parts of. Holliday, though still a freshmen, has become comfortable with her role in the Bearcats’ offense.

“Stepping on the field and just doing whatever I can to help out the team is really huge,” she said. “I think, however, I can contribute to the team in my role, and I really like it.”

SCORELESS START

However, all of the Bearcats struggled offensively in the beginning of the year, as the team stumbled to a 0-3-1 start, scoring zero goals in that span. But the offense woke up, the team chemistry began thriving and the Bearcats finished off the regular season by winning nine of their last 12 games.

“Our work ethic as a team is great,” McClellan said. “We’ve been working hard all season. [We] started off a little bit slow in terms of results, but our commitment to the process of preparation has gotten us to where we are now in the playoffs.”

The road to the playoffs saw the Bearcats achieve a 6-2 conference record, the best conference winning percentage the school has had in Division I competition. It gave Binghamton the No. 2 seed in the tournament. The postseason position was another change for the Bearcats, as it was the highest seeding that the team has ever had, besides its championship 2004 season, when it was also No. 2.

This season, the Bearcats clinched a playoff spot with two games to spare, but last year it came down to the last game, and the feelings of those two games are significantly different, according to Amanda Casares.

“It feels great to not have to wait til the last game of the conference,” she said after clinching the postseason berth. “We took care of business and we’re in it early this year.”

BEARCAT UNITY

But according to Casares, a team captain this year, the biggest difference from last year’s squad has been the team’s togetherness and unity.

“I think that how we interact off the field really makes a difference on the field,” she said. “We’ve done a lot of team-bonding activities throughout the year, and our team is a lot closer. We don’t have a lot of that bickering that we might have had in the past couple years. I think that’s what really makes a difference: We treat each other as a family and we wanna play for each other on the field.”

These changes have combined to earn Binghamton a 9-6-2 overall record and a showdown with the defending champion Boston University Terriers in the America East finals. The season’s accomplishments have continued the program on its path toward building a team that can be more and more successful every year. The differences from last year and the challenges of this season have made the team stronger.

Some sports teams crumble when drastic change meets daunting challenges. Some teams thrive and establish a precedent for success in the future. The Bearcats have proved this year which one of those teams they are.