What does Binghamton University women’s tennis (14-2, 3-0 America East) have in common with LeBron James? This could be their year.

Well, so long as there is no Sweet 16. Binghamton women’s tennis heads to Yale this weekend for the America East Conference championship. And while LeBron attempts to ward off a 16th Los Angeles Lakers title run, the Bearcats will do everything in their power to prevent the Boston Terriers from earning their 16th-consecutive America East title.

The Bearcats have one thing going for them: The table could not have been set any better.

The Bearcats will be the top seed in the conference tournament for the first time ever. At the second spot are the Terriers, who come in looking up at Binghamton — despite being conference champs since the days when Andre Agassi and Venus Williams defined style as having long hair and beads.

Nostalgia aside, the Terriers are not the Terriers of old: They finished the season 9-11, with conference wins over UMBC and Hartford. The last time Boston finished a year under .500 was in 2003, when they went 9-12. After being ranked 59th last year, the Terriers went unranked throughout this season, while Binghamton ranked 62nd on March 2. The Bearcats have also hit their stride at the right time: they come in with a seven-match win streak dating back to March 12, while Boston dropped four of six matches to close its season.

A stellar regular season, coupled with Boston’s challenging one, has seen Bearcat players surge with confidence as their season climaxes. This group of players has been put together precisely for this moment. Juniors Anna Edelman, Lauren Bates and Yulia Smirnova comprised the fourth-ranked recruiting class among mid majors by www.Tennisrecruiting.net, while sophomore Jillian Santos was projected as the 88th-best high school senior in her class of 2008 when brought to Binghamton.

“We’re excited to be the first seed,” said Edelman, who has been ranked as high as 108th in the country this season, a first for the program. “We’ve worked really hard this season and we definitely have a chance to win it this year.”

First up for the Bearcats on their quest will be the winner of a quarterfinal matchup between UMBC and Albany; the Retrievers are the favorites to win because they defeated the Great Danes 7-0 on March 28. The Bearcats did beat the Retrievers 5-2 on April 10, but cannot sleepwalk through that one. Edelman and Smirnova needed three sets to advance, and Bates won a close 6-3, 7-5 battle at the top spot over Alice Chen.

Binghamton’s close affair with the Retrievers underscores a very important issue for the Bearcats this coming weekend: Take nothing for granted. While Binghamton secured the top seed, Boston has proved over each of the last 15 seasons that they know how to get into the winner’s circle on Sunday. As former NBA coach Rudy Tomjanovich said, “Never underestimate the heart of a champion.” Bates, Binghamton’s top singles player, wants to make sure her team is aware of this.

“We need to remain focused and play each match one at a time,” she said.

So, can Binghamton women’s tennis beat Boston? A decade-and-a-half of history is not on its side, and nobody knows how the Bearcats will handle being the top seed.

Regardless, the fact that this can even be debated speaks to how far Binghamton women’s tennis has come as a program.