Statistically, the situation looks pretty grim.

The conference’s tennis championships kick off this afternoon with first-round action. On the men’s side, the fourth-ranked Bearcats will take on No. 5 Hartford, while BU’s second-ranked women’s team will enjoy a first-round bye until tomorrow, when they’ll take on the winner of No. 3 UMBC vs. No. 6 Hartford.

Neither BU team comes in as a favorite, but what makes this tournament unusual is that, for underdogs, both teams boast remarkably impressive resumes.

On the men’s side, the Bearcats have reached the championship an AE-best four straight years, winning it all in 2003, 2004 and 2005. Last April, the Bearcats fell just one match short, losing to rival Stony Brook, 4-3.

At last year’s tournament, it should be noted, Binghamton sophomore Faisal Mohamed was suspended for the entire tournament by the BU athletics department after he vociferously disagreed with being named to the All-Conference second team at a pre-tournament banquet. Stony Brook senior Jean-Francis Robaitaille, whom Mohamed had crushed, 6-2, 6-2 in the regular season, was named first-team fifth singles.

Had Mohamed been suspended for just the semifinal round, instead of the entirety of the tournament, the Bearcats might be entering this weekend as four-time defending champions.

This year, Mohamed, the Bearcats’ captain, will surely keep his mouth shut, but whether Binghamton will get a fifth straight shot at Stony Brook on Sunday is very much in doubt, as the Seawolves themselves are just the No. 3 seed. Both Binghamton and Stony Brook would need to pull off Saturday upsets for the best rivalry in the America East to continue for a fifth consecutive year.

But it’s possible.

As much as I dislike Stony Brook, they are certainly capable of beating No. 2 Boston University, an unlikely contender this year. For the Bearcats, the road is tougher ‘ but still not impossible.

This has been a difficult year for the men’s tennis team, under first-year head coach Adam Cohen. Michael Starke stepped down after last year’s championship loss, and several players anticipated to return, including Aurelio Martinez and Mark Piro, left the team for various reasons. This compounded the loss of three seniors: Richemn Mourad, Edwin Gerard and Brian O’Connor, leaving Mohamed and classmate Alex Dobrin as the only returning starters.

The pair each has something to prove. After a tough loss in the team’s first battle with UMBC, Mohamed will embrace getting a second chance at UMBC’s Irfan Shamasdin. Dobrin, meanwhile, will look to erase the painful memories of his match-ending defeat at the hands of Stony Brook’s Michael Crooks last April, after Dobrin’s legs locked in dehydration.

The Bearcats need their two seasoned veterans to come through once again. To win, they’ll need to exact revenge in one of the 4-5-6 singles and steal the doubles point ‘ a point they’ve won only five times this season.

Meanwhile, the BU women seem destined for another Sunday showdown with the elephant in the room, Boston University.

The Bearcats did everything they could do this year, going 14-2, including 4-0 against the ‘other’ America East teams. In any other sport, convincingly running the table in conference play would make you the instant favorite.

In tennis, though, that’s not the case.

Boston University is so good, they don’t even bother playing an America East schedule (it’s not required in tennis), although they did trounce UMBC, beating the Retrievers 7-0 in March. The perennial juggernaut has taken home 13 straight titles, and seems poised to hoist the trophy once again this weekend ‘ but let’s not give them the title just yet.

Zeynep Altinay is quite possibly the best female athlete in Binghamton University history. When the team lost several key players in the fall of 2003, Altinay stepped into the first singles role and quickly became the most dominant player in the conference.

It’s almost unfair to call Lya Kushnirovich a No. 2 ‘ let’s instead call her 1A. ‘Kush’ has made tremendous strides since her freshman year as well, keeping pace with Altinay, and is just two wins behind her teammate who holds the school’s all-time record.

And it has to be eating at coach Mike Stevens on the inside to keep playing second fiddle to Lesley Sheehan in the AE. Stevens, the conference’s reigning Coach of the Year, has brought the women’s tennis program to the brink of its first championship twice, and now yields his senior pocket aces as the season’s final hand is played.

With those two spectacular seniors, it’d be clich√É© for me to declare ‘This is the year’ for Binghamton women’s tennis. But to Stevens’ credit, that ultimatum just is not the case. Stevens’ impressive line-up includes two very talented freshmen, and a sophomore, Juliana Umeki, whose potential, despite some struggles this season, trumps even that of Altinay.

While the team certainly has a chance to pull the upset this weekend, the future is bright for Stevens and his program, despite the fact that the two best players the program has ever seen will be completing their long, arduous journeys of success.

Check out Pipe Dream next week for a season wrap-up column about the Binghamton tennis programs.