Binghamton University’s new women’s lacrosse coach was optimistic when asked about his team’s chances this season.

“There’s no place to go but up,” said Tony Zostant, a two-time Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year, who spent the last six seasons with St. Bonaventure.

The Bearcats have been perennial cellar-dwellers, with just one America East win in their history and another loss to open this season, 21-9 at William and Mary on Sunday. The team certainly hopes their new coach can turn it around, although for many starters, this is the only coach they know.

“We put the strongest players on the field,” said Zostant of his decision to start seven freshmen and one transfer student.

But it’s not just the fresh faces that are different about the Bearcats this season — they’ve refurbished the entire system.

“We have a different offense, a different defense and a different transitional system … it will be a change for the better,” said junior captain Kara Slowik.

Zostant said the team looks forward to playing a new type of game, and that Binghamton might catch people who were expecting the old type of Bearcats lacrosse. Another captain, junior Kelsey Pieper said she has already seen progress. “Coach has done a tremendous job of making us better at the smaller aspects of the game, like recovering ground balls. “All these small things will add up and make us a better unit.”

“We’re hoping to break into the middle of the pack of the conference standing this year,” Zostant said.

It’s a long season and Zostant said he realizes that BU won’t shoot right to the top of the standings, regardless of the new implementations. He said he wasn’t discouraged after dropping the season opener because his freshmen still played well and seven different players contributed to the scoring. And because he knows learning so much in so little time can be overwhelming.

“The girls had a lot to learn in a little amount of time,” Zostant said.

The freshman situation will hopefully cause in-team competition, which should in turn create better performance. Currently, with only two goalies on the roster, freshman Lauren Scott is getting the nod. Scott has already been penciled into tomorrow’s starting lineup despite a rough first game. Zostant and the girls believe that there aren’t favorites being played, but the best athletes are being put on the field in order to give the team the best chance at winning.

Zostant also sees playing early home games as an advantage as teams have to come to Binghamton and deal with the elements that the Bearcats are used to dealing with every day at practice. Binghamton has the fortune to practice at the Bearcat Sports Complex, which Zostant describes as “awesome.” As much as he would like to increase the home-field advantage by seeing as many fans as the men’s soccer team saw during its season, Zostant realizes that the weather is a little bit different.

“It would be great, but we realize it’s going to be 20 degrees out,” Zostant said. “No matter what the stands look like, my girls will play their best for either 5 or 500 fans.”

A face off against Colgate is set for 4 p.m., Friday at the Bearcats Sports Complex.