The Binghamton University women’s lacrosse team redeemed itself with a 16-11 win over Colgate University on Wednesday at the Bearcats Sports Complex, just days after Saturday’s disheartening home loss to La Salle University.

BU senior attack Lis Zuern shined in the matchup, recording a game-best five goals against the Raiders (1-8) to lead the Bearcats (3-4) into their conference schedule on a high note. Binghamton is set to open its America East schedule on Saturday against University of New Hampshire.

“This is definitely an awesome win and the momentum is huge right now,” Zuern said. “[It was big to come out with a win] against Colgate, who we haven’t beat since I’ve been here in the past three years.”

The opening minutes of the first half seemed like a carbon copy of the team’s previous two games as BU established a tempo on offense early. Junior midfielder Katherine Hunsberger asserted herself on the offensive end, scoring the first goal of the game and assisting on another to cap Binghamton’s 4-0 run to start the period.

But Colgate responded quickly with a 3-0 scoring spurt of its own to trim the deficit to 4-3. After a Hunsberger goal extended BU’s lead to 6-4 at the 6:02 mark, the offensive continuity for both teams became stagnant. The Bearcats headed into the second period with a two-goal lead.

At the onset of the second half, the Raiders made some noise as Colgate senior midfielder Courtney Miller evened the scoring at six. But after a timeout, the Bearcats proceeded to go on a 6-0 run to break the game open.

Zuern, who also had two assists, scored three times during the run. BU built a six-goal advantage at 12-6. Colgate did not concede defeat as the Raiders scored three of the next five goals to pull within five, but Zuern’s two goals at the end put the finishing touches on the victory.

The win marked Binghamton’s first home victory of the season and avenged its loss to the Raiders, 19-9, last season.

BU controlled the draw circle (21-33), which was a major point of emphasis during team practices leading up to the game, according to head coach Tony Zostant.

“It was good to get our momentum back,” Zostant said. “The last two games were losses for us, but we came out very strong the last two games. We came out 3-0 both games. We came out 3-0 today. Draw controls were an issue for us the last two games and we worked hard all week long on draw controls. We took care of the draw controls today and it worked out for us.”

Binghamton also outshot the Raiders, 33-19. Even aside from Zuern’s stellar performance, Binghamton’s offense was well accounted as four different Bearcats got in on the scoring action. Hunsberger and junior attack Kimberly McGeever had three and four goals, respectively. Junior midfielder Kristen Stone and freshman midfielder Renee Kiviat each tallied a goal.

The Bearcats are scheduled to travel to New Hampshire to take on the Wildcats this Saturday, and Zuern said the momentum from Wednesday’s win will help the Bearcats head into conference play.

“It would be great to start off our conference play with a win,” she said. “That would definitely show the conference what we’re all about.”

“It’s a little bit of [a] revenge game for us from last year,” Zostant added. “They knocked us out of [the] postseason, so I’m pretty sure we’ll be ready to play.”

Saturday’s match is set to begin at 4 p.m.