Despite finishing tied for second place in the America East, tiebreakers landed the Binghamton University men’s lacrosse team the No. 4 seed in the conference tournament, forcing the team to travel for its opening game.

BU (7-7, 3-2 AE) will head to Stony Brook University (9-3, 5-0 AE) tomorrow to face off with the top-seeded Seawolves in the first round of the four-team tournament. The winner of the tournament will clinch a berth in the NCAA men’s lacrosse championship.

The Bearcats own a 5-1 record at home, propelled by a five-game home winning streak, but are only 2-6 away from the Bearcats Sports Complex, including a 13-6 loss at Stony Brook’s LaValle Stadium two weeks ago.

“Playing on the road is always tougher. You always like to play in front of your home crowd on your home field, but our guys have been down there once already this year and are going to be prepared for that this time around,” interim head coach Kevin McKeown said. “Going down there last time, we don’t feel like we gave our best effort, and we’re excited to go down there again for a playoff game now and get back after them.”

The location of the game notwithstanding, the Bearcats have a formidable test in the nationally ranked No. 14 Seawolves. As defending conference champions, SBU not only went undefeated in conference play this year, but also outscored its opponents by a combined score of 74-39 in five AE games. But McKeown said there is no sense of any fear factor amidst his team despite the strength of Stony Brook.

“A team that’s ranked and as talented offensively as Stony Brook is a great challenge, but we’ve played some pretty strong teams this year,” he said. “We beat a Colgate team that’s now ranked in the top 20, so I don’t think that’s much of an issue for the guys.”

In addition, the loss at Stony Brook on April 16 should give the Bearcats much-needed experience as well as a better scouting report in their preparations for how to handle the tough Seawolves.

“I’m much more happy with how our defense has been playing since that Stony Brook game,” McKeown said. “We’ve seen them once, so we know what they’re all about, and we certainly have a couple of wrinkles that we’re going to throw in there to prepare for them.”

Leading the way defensively for the Bearcats will be senior Derrick Danieu, who will be given the difficult task of stopping the Stony Brook attack led by midfielder Kevin Crowley. A Tewaaraton Trophy finalist for the nation’s most outstanding player, Crowley leads the America East Conference in scoring with 48 points, and was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2011 Major League Lacrosse draft.

“He’s a great player who can pretty much do everything, probably one of the best in the country I would say,” Danieu said. “But we just have to play defense. It’s not much different than anyone else. We have to slide to him, help each other. It’s going to be a tough draw.”

Speaking about the pressure leading up to the do-or-die game and the urgency of the moment, Danieu offered a very realistic perspective.

“Everyone is pretty much expecting us to lose,” he said. “We’re the underdog in this, so all the pressure’s on them. They’re the home team, nationally ranked, we’re the four seed coming in, so we’re trying to upset them and show them what kind of team we are.”

Face-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. tomorrow at Stony Brook.