Even though Binghamton University’s men’s lacrosse team travels to No. 5 Cornell for a road game today, the Bearcats are hoping their home field will have them prepared.

You read correctly.

For the first time in program history, the Bearcats have a true home field: the Bearcat Sports Complex. In years past, while almost every Division I lacrosse team trained on turf in the winter, the Bearcats were forced into a small gym until just before the season opener.

Now, Binghamton has been able to train for weeks on shiny new turf. The Bearcats are hoping their early practices will translate into revenge on the Red Raiders in Ithaca.

In 2007, Binghamton opened at Cornell and was embarrassed by a 19-4 loss. In 2006, Binghamton lost 16-3. In 2005, the margin was 12-5. It’s no secret that the Bearcats want a better showing now that they are more prepared.

“I’m looking forward to the Cornell game the most because they’ve embarrassed us the last couple of years,” said junior Chris Winter. “I think with the new field it’s going to give us an advantage that we haven’t had before.”

“The new field is going to be a big factor,” said head coach Ed Stephenson. “We’re playing some scrimmages; last year we only got one scrimmage in and [Cornell] had three so it certainly helped them out playing on the full field.”

The good news for Binghamton is that Cornell graduated four All-Americans last year. The bad news is that they still have three All-Americans on the squad. Midfielder John Glynn and attackmen Max Seibald and Matt Moyer were all named to the preseason watch list for the Tewaaraton Award, lacrosse’s equivalent of the Heisman. The Big Red are coming off an overtime victory over No. 12 Navy, and hope to replicate the success of 2007, when they went 15-1.

Face-off is set for 4 p.m. today, and live scores are available at cornellbigred.com.