Despite the heavy snowstorm this past week, the Bearcats Sports Complex was in very good condition and the weather was not a factor for the Friday afternoon women’s lacrosse match. The Binghamton University women’s lacrosse team (0-1) fell to the University of Louisville (3-0) by a score of 19-8 this past Friday.

The game started close with both teams scoring back and forth, and after Binghamton junior Beth Moore put the ball in the back of the net with 9:14 to play in the first half, the score was tied at 5-5. However, the Cardinals settled in, scored seven unanswered goals and never looked back.

“We lost focus at the end of the half and [that] caused a lot of turnovers,” said Binghamton head coach Tony Zostant.

Bearcat juniors Siobhan Menz and Lis Zuern both had a pair of goals while freshmen Kimberly McGeever and Casey Bulman made their presence felt as they each tallied a goal.

The Bearcats were outshot 39-19 during the game and had almost twice as many turnovers as the Cardinals.

The Bearcats are a young team featuring a roster of 11 freshmen, seven sophomores, seven juniors and just two seniors. They have three captains in senior Erika Travis, Moore and sophomore Amanda Hughes.

“Our three captains are doing an outstanding job leading this team in the direction we want the program to go,” Zostant said.

Binghamton’s non-conference schedule includes Colgate and Vanderbilt, both of whom were in the NCAA tournament last year. Other non-conference teams include Marist, Bucknell, Monmouth, Canisius and LeMoyne. Many of the games are rematches of games from last season and were games that had been won or lost by close margins. Facing these teams again will test how the Bearcats have improved from last year.

However, conference play will not be much easier. The Bearcats were a disappointing 0-6 last year in conference play, which was the fifth straight season that the team failed to win a single America East Conference game. The last time the Bearcats won a match against an AE team was in 2004 over Vermont, 12-11. That victory is the only conference win that Binghamton has mustered in the entire history of the program, going 1-43 dating back to the program’s inception in 2002.

The Bearcats’ first conference game this season is scheduled against the 12th-ranked team in the country, the Boston University Terriers, which will be part of a three-game home stand.

The Bearcats will host the UConn Huskies of the Big East Conference next week. The Huskies, like the Bearcats, have a very young team with 15 freshmen and the core of the team being the sophomore class.

“We are going to work hard, and work as a team,” Zostant said.