Despite continuing to display the strong play they promised would come during conference play this month, the Binghamton women’s soccer team (2-8-2, 1-2 America East) fell at home to the Hartford Hawks (3-5-3, 1-0-1 AE) on Sunday afternoon by a score of 2-0.

Coming off of their first in-conference win of the season, a 4-2 victory Thursday night against Vermont, the Bearcats looked to put together their first winning streak of the year by controlling Hartford at the Bearcat Sports Complex. This was accomplished over the course of the first half, where the Bearcat backfield only allowed one shot on goal for the entire half. But with the teams going into the break with a scoreless tie despite Binghamton outshooting the Hawks 4-1, head coach Jeff Leightman’s words were certainly in the back of the spectators’ minds.

‘We need to win those 1-0 games,’ Leightman said earlier in the season. ‘We are still unproven in our ability to shut down an equal opponent.’

The Bearcats squandered four offensive opportunities in the first half, as they were unable to manifest a successful strike on goal from their corner kick opportunities. Binghamton also found itself offsides four times over the half they had in hand, killing most of its offensive chances.

BU’s offensive deficiency in the first half allowed for the Hawks to hang around and the Hartford offense to come out of the break energized. The Hawks opened up the floodgates after Michelle Orelli turned a corner kick into a header past Erin Iman, who had five saves over the course of the contest. After only having one shot for the duration of the first half, the Hawks sent nine balls toward Iman and the goal she was to protect.

After the header broke the scoreless tie in the 58th minute, Hartford’s Kacey Busque sent a shot from the top of the key, which found its way behind Iman. Busque was also responsible for finding the head of Orelli with her corner kick to put her team up 1-0.

Danielle White led the Bearcats with three shots, two of which were on goal.

The Bearcats will look for brighter results to come from their northern travels to Albany (3-6-3, 0-3 AE) this Thursday as they attempt to even out to .500 in conference play.

The rival Great Danes are coming off a 3-0 loss at first place New Hampshire on Sunday. The Danes have thus far been outscored 11-0 by the top three teams in the AE in their three conference games and have allowed 27 total goals, the most in the conference.

Despite the recent offensive woes, Albany does have a dangerous offensive attack, led by freshman midfielder Teresa Boring, who leads the team with seven goals. The Great Danes rank fourth in the AE in both goals per game and shots per game.

Game time is set for 3 p.m. on Thursday at Albany’s Varsity Field.