Last season, the Binghamton women’s lacrosse team recorded a historic 27-16 defeat to UMBC away from home. Rematching the Retrievers in 2022, the Bearcats rebounded to post a decisive 20-14 victory over the hosts and earn their first America East (AE) victory of the season.

“We played with a lot of passion and intensity, and we finally strung both ends together for 60 minutes,” said Binghamton head coach Stephanie Allen. “We wanted to redeem ourselves from last year and the last time we played them. I thought we did that pretty well today.”

The Bearcats (6-5, 1-1 AE) have only beaten UMBC (7-5, 1-1 AE) three out of the 19 times the two teams have met. Binghamton’s last victory over the Retrievers was in 2018 on its home turf. Before Wednesday’s matchup, BU had never beaten UMBC on the road and had never scored more than 16 points against it.

Senior attack Emily Masera scored the game’s first goal within the opening minute. UMBC responded with a goal of its own three minutes later, but the Bearcats managed to drive another two shots into the net before the seventh minute, giving the visitors a 3-1 lead.

Just before the start of the eighth minute, the Retrievers initiated a flurry of goals by both sides. Within the span of five minutes, Binghamton put two more goals on the board, and UMBC added another three to its first-quarter tally to head into the break down by one. BU still led 5-4.

Binghamton found the back of the net five more times in the second quarter. However, the Retrievers were hot on its tail. UMBC managed to score another four goals in the second frame, capitalizing on four of its six shots in the period. Although they were up by two, the Bearcats were not out of range for a UMBC comeback.

At the start of the second half, the Retrievers quickly made up the deficit, scoring two goals before the third minute to even the score at 10-10. BU responded with two goals, but each time Binghamton struck the back of the net, UMBC followed suit. Eventually, with just over four minutes left on the clock in the third quarter, the Retrievers took the lead, 13-12.

The UMBC lead was short-lived, however, as Binghamton went on a 4-0 run to close out the quarter and later extended its uninterrupted scoring streak to 8-0 in the final frame. UMBC scored one final consolation goal at the buzzer.

“I think [the win] is a huge momentum swing,” Allen said. “We played a tight contest against Albany, and the score doesn’t quite reflect [how] we matched up to them. Today kind of showed us what we’re certainly capable of doing, and hopefully that carries through to the rest of conference regular season.”

Binghamton’s early scoring efforts were led by freshman attack Marisa Tancredi, who bagged four goals before halftime. She found the net a fifth time in the third quarter.

“We had [Tancredi] coming off the bench today doing an outstanding job,” Allen said. “Today, they knew it was going to take all of them playing together to put up this type of performance against UMBC. I thought they followed the game plan very well.”

Alongside Tancredi, junior attack Kenna Newman and freshman attack Olivia Muscolino each scored four goals individually. The attacking trio of Tancredi, Newman and Muscolino accounted for 13 of the team’s 20 goals.

“We’ve got a really balanced attack and we’ve got eight scorers in today’s game that are all posing themselves as threats out there,” Allen said. “It makes it really difficult to defend when you’re not dialed in to just one or two players.”

BU’s next matchup is scheduled against UMass Lowell on Senior Day. The Bearcats have never lost to the River Hawks in their six matchups since 2015.

“[UMass Lowell] is a team that we’ve beaten in every matchup in the past, but they’re not an easy team,” Allen said. “They’re a team that’s really gritty, they’re probably the most talented [now] we’ve ever seen as a program. It’s gonna be important for us to step out and be our best.”

The home matchup is scheduled for Saturday, April 9. First draw control is set for 1 p.m. at the Bearcats Sports Complex in Vestal, New York.