Looking at the Binghamton wrestling team’s results, its play has been very consistent. The Bearcats (5-7, 3-2 Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association) are undefeated in Friday matches, posting a perfect 4-0 record when ushering in the weekend. Unfortunately, that consistency translates to a 0-3 record this season on Sundays — with the most recent Sunday loss coming against University of Pennsylvania, 26-10.

Despite being BU’s worst EIWA loss this season — the Bearcats trailing by as many as 20 points — head coach Matt Dernlan was not disheartened by his team’s performance against the Quakers (4-4, 1-1 EIWA).

“We knew that that was going to be a very tough, experienced, mature team that was going to go out and execute and not make many mistakes,” Dernlan said.

“Not that you like to go through these experiences … but, until [the young guys] go through it, that’s the only way we’re going to learn,” he added.

Opening the match was 125-pound senior David White, who extended his winning streak to four with a 7-3 decision win over UPenn sophomore Jeremy Schwartz. But that was the last lead that Binghamton held against Penn, as the Quakers took the following five matchups to erect a 19-3 lead.

The Bearcats’ next break came when 174-pound freshman Steve Schneider rallied for an overtime decision victory to cut UPenn’s lead to 13. But Schneider’s late momentum wouldn’t be enough to revive Binghamton: The Quakers took the following two matches in the 184- and 197-classes. Twenty-second ranked senior heavyweight Tyler Deuel ended the match on a high note for BU, taking a major decision win good enough to put the Bearcats into double-digits, at 26-10.

In passed matches this season, it has been the strong play of White and the upper weights that has been Binghamton’s largest constant in a season riddled with injury. And while Dernlan doesn’t want to look to undermine struggling lower- and middle-weight divisions, he recognizes the importance of his upper-weight wrestlers to his team’s success.

“We kind of need those confidence boosters, because we’re in a hold a couple weights … but that’s the reality,” Dernlan said. “Everybody’s got a couple injuries this time of the year, but you can’t look to those and use them as excuses.”

As far as the Bearcats’ search for consistency goes, Dernlan believes that Sunday was a step in the right direction for a BU team that has yet to see an undefeated weekend.

“If you see the way we competed, this was more complete than say, a Columbia [who ousted BU, 19-18, last Sunday],” Dernlan said. “That’s something we’ve been putting on these guys these last couple weeks, ‘complete a weekend.’ Now we didn’t get the victory out there today. But compared to last Sunday, our effort and our fight was a ton better.”

Binghamton’s next EIWA weekend test will take them to New England, facing Sacred Heart on Friday night before going to Providence, Rhode Island to face off against Brown on Saturday. And even though it may be a new weekend, the Bearcats’ goal will be a familiar one.

“It’s about consistency,” Dernlan said. “We understand where we’re deficient — we’ve known that for a while. It’s really just getting those young guys to jump to that level. They’ve seen it, they’ve heard it, now the last step is to finally consistently do it every week.”

Binghamton is set to face off against Sacred Heart on Friday at 7 p.m. at the William H. Pitt Center in Fairfield, Connecticut.