Consistency’s the word. If the Binghamton’s men’s lacrosse team had been a little more consistent in 2006, it could have made a run to the NCAA tournament. Instead, the Bearcats finished with a disappointing 7-8 record, considering how strongly they started the season.

Early in the 2006 season, Binghamton upset No. 8 Towson and No. 17 Hobart, reaching as high as No. 16 in the national rankings before losing composure in key games and sputtering in the second half of the schedule. The Bearcats’ schedule this year is one of the toughest in the nation, so in some respects replicating last year’s out-of-conference success will be difficult. Binghamton travels to No. 8 Cornell, No. 25 Hobart, No. 3 Syracuse and No. 1 defending national champion Virginia before taking on conference foes, including No. 18 UMBC and No. 20 Albany.

If that sounds like a lot of ranked teams to play, that’s because it is.

‘There’s not a single game on our schedule where I can look at it and say, that’s a win, we could beat them without our A game,’ said head coach Ed Stephenson. ‘Every single game has the potential to be highly competitive, and very close.’

Stephenson, the man who has guided BU every season since the move to Division I, will have to compete without the some of the most prolific players in Bearcat history, including defensive stars Kevin Kaylor, Sean Meluney and former All-American goalie Kevin McKeown, who graduated last year.

With only seven seniors, Stephenson’s group will rely heavily on freshmen and sophomores. Binghamton returns four America East 2006 all-rookie selections in Jake Boyce, John Dreska, Chris Mulheron and J.P. Wioncek. And this year’s freshman class might be even better than those super sophs.

‘In the past, when we put together a recruiting class, it would have two or three blue-chip players,’ Stephenson said. ‘We’ve now put together classes which from one end to another have a high level of skill.’

With a greater amount of talent, the Bearcats will display more balanced scoring than in the past. Aside from senior captain Matt McNamara and senior Rob Williams, the attack unit will feature all freshmen and sophomores.

Sophomores Boyce and Mulheron are the returning goal and assist leaders, respectively, and Jon Baron, a transfer from Delaware, will help. Freshmen Andy Cook and Jeff Rurey from Vestal High School have earned starting positions and will look to make an immediate impact. Cook, whom Stephenson had recruited since his sophomore year, was an All-American at Vestal, whereas Rurey walked on to the Bearcats and earned his spot through hard work in practice. Freshmen Drew Wichmann and Chris Welch will also contribute.

Junior Stephen Smith leads the midfielders, who may comprise the most experienced unit on the team. Seniors Jeff Santucci and Jeff Kaylor will compete with Kevin Joy and Steve Carlson for spots on the starting squad. Sophomore J.P. Wioncek, who finished 12th in the nation in both face-off percentage and ground-balls, will continue to assert his will in the face-off circle.

Stephenson’s teams have a reputation for being stingy defensively, but there are questions about this year’s backfield, which returns only one senior, Tom Wilmot. Junior Mike Cove, sophomore John Dreska and freshman Griffin McLoughlin will contribute on defense, and freshman Brent Read will play defensive midfield.

In attempting to replace the former All-American McKeown, Stephenson sees a position battle at goal. Sophomore Larry Kline will likely start in the season opener at Cornell, but he’ll face competition from junior Jeff Walker and freshman Dan Serafine.

‘You could see a different goalie each week in the early season,’ Stephenson said. ‘Just like all the other positions, each week they’ll have the chance to earn a starting spot.’