Senior goalkeeper Jen McEachron has seen a variety of situations in her time at Binghamton University. She learned the ropes as a freshman, started every minute in goal as a junior, and split time in net as a senior. But as McEachron has developed and improved, so has Binghamton’s women’s soccer program, and her career ended at the pinnacle of conference play: the title game. Amidst changes in coaching, lineups, and playing time, McEachron has continued to work at improving her game as an athlete and her education as a student.
McEachron began playing soccer at age five and started playing the goalkeeper position at age eight. Upon joining a club team, she began to love the position more and more. She then started in goal all four years in high school, where she got a taste of success at Hoosick Falls Central, located northeast of Albany, N.Y.
“I came from a really successful high school soccer team,” McEachron said. “We won the state championship, and I came from a good club team. I loved winning; I was always on a good team when I was younger.”
McEachron was team captain at Hoosick Falls for two years, earning first-team all-league as a junior, winning the school’s first-ever state championship as a senior, and setting the record for career shutouts at 34.
As McEachron was deciding between schools, she said that Binghamton caught her attention the most.
“I first became interested in the school because I knew it had a really good reputation,” she said. “When I came here on my recruiting trip, the number one thing for me was the girls … I came here and I met all the girls and I loved it and knew this is where I wanted to come.”
But McEachron admitted that college was “a totally different game” than high school soccer. She redshirted her freshman season with an injury and spent the year learning from full-time goalkeeper Kristie Bowers. The Bearcats had a 7-8-3 record in 2006.
“There were two senior goalies so I never played,” McEachron said of her freshman campaign. “But I learned a lot from that experience, and how much work it took to get on the field, and after sitting that year I learned that it was gonna take a lot of work on my part to be where I wanted to be. I learned from the seniors and it definitely led me to be more motivated in the years to come, and that’s what pushed me to get better was that first year that I sat. I think that it ended up benefitting me to have to do that.”
McEachron’s sophomore season saw her first official action as a Bearcat, as she appeared in eight games and started six. In that time she compiled a 1.47 goals against average and registered a .783 save percentage.
The 2007 season also saw the emergence of Erin Iman, who started 12 matches in her first year at Binghamton. She held a goals against average of 1.80 that year and looked to be the go-to goalkeeper for the Bearcats. But the team fell to a 3-12-4 record that year.
Then a shoulder injury took Iman out of the 2008 season, and McEachron seized the opportunity to shine. Under new head coach Sarah McClellan, McEachron played every minute of the season and helped the Bearcats sprint to an 8-9-1 record. Her goals against average improved to 1.25 as she saved nearly 80 percent of the shots she faced and earned seven shutouts.
“Jen’s become such a more consistent player in goal, so much more confident in her communication,” McClellan said. “[Compared to] when she was a freshman, it’s night and day. As a freshman, she was very hesitant, and had a lot to learn.”
As the 2009 season kicked off, McEachron and Iman split time in net for the first couple of games, and it appeared that McClellan might choose between the better of the two after the first few nonconference games. But McClellan ended up keeping the timeshare for the entire season: McEachron started and played the first half, and Iman played the second half.
“We have two tremendous goalkeepers that are both more than capable,” McClellan said in September. “We’re taking advantage of having that luxury of having two very strong goalkeepers, and we’ll continue to get them both into the games because we need them both to be playing well for us to win our games.”
The Bearcats continued to win games, thanks to an improved forward attack, a stingy back line and the McEachron-Iman combination in net. The pair split eight shutouts throughout the year, and McEachron’s goals against average was a sparkling .77, second-best in the conference. The Bearcats finished with a 9-7-2 record, their best since 2005, and a 6-2 America East record, the best conference winning percentage in the history of the program.
While it was quite a change of pace for McEachron to share the net with Iman, she took it all in stride.
“We’re winning games, and I think Erin and I are both doing a good job,” McEachron said in October. “The defense in front of us has a lot to do with why we’re being successful, so I think that it’s good and everything’s working out well right now. As long as we’re winning.”
The Bearcats continued their winning ways up through the America East semifinal game against Maine. The game was a battle that remained a scoreless tie through two overtime periods. The match came down to the penalty kick shootout, and with McEachron in net, Binghamton sealed the victory. She made a crucial save on Maine’s second shooter, and the Bearcats advanced to the America East championship in Boston, where they would fall to the defending champion Terriers.
According to team captain Amanda Casares, it was McEachron’s experience that proved to be her biggest asset in the final moments of the semifinal victory.
“She’s one of the few who made it since we were freshmen here, and it’s nice to have confidence in someone like that,” Casares said. “She’s done a nice job for us, and it really showed in the Maine game.”
As one of four players on the Binghamton roster to have been here for four years, McEachron’s development as an athlete has paralleled her success in the classroom. She was a member of the America East Commissioner’s Honor Roll in 2008 and was inducted into the National College Athlete Honor Society.
“It’s due to her work ethic and willingness to develop that she’s become such a high-quality goalkeeper that she is today,” McClellan said.