America East men’s lacrosse has Saturday-night fever and the Bearcats are caught right in the middle: their final regular-season game carries serious playoff implications.
Though all four playoff spots have already been clinched, the seedings have yet to be determined. Binghamton (7-6, 2-2 AE) visits Albany (6-6, 2-2 AE) in a battle for the third spot, while Stony Brook (8-5, 4-0 AE) hosts UMBC (7-4, 4-0 AE) 200 miles away to determine which team will garner the first seed and host the entire tournament.
“We want to get the three seed so we can play the two seed away from their home field, regardless of who it is,” said head coach Ed Stephenson.
The Albany Great Danes have experience on their side, as they have won the conference tournament the past three seasons, and thoroughly handled Binghamton in the semifinals last season 11-3. The Bearcats were down just 4-3 at halftime, but were unable to score in the second half as Albany completely dominated the final 30 minutes of play.
Binghamton will try to exorcise last season’s demons tomorrow, which will not be an easy task considering Albany is the top-scoring team in the conference at an average of 11 goals per game. The Bearcats will have to exploit the Great Danes’ defense, as their 10.14 goals allowed per game is higher than only lowly Hartford.
“This time of year, they’re tough to beat,” Stephenson said. “I like what our team has shown the last couple games. Even though we haven’t had all wins, they’ve shown good resolve.”
Binghamton is riding high after a dominant Senior Day performance, which saw the Bearcats shut out Drexel in the second half. The defense needs to continue that high level of play tomorrow because Albany’s junior attackmen Frank Resetarits and Merrick Thomson have combined for 59 goals this season.
Albany is coming off a tough overtime loss to ninth-ranked Syracuse, and the Bearcats will try to work off the heartbreaker with the same formula for success they’ve employed all season long, starting with J.P. Wioncek, the nation’s leading freshman in faceoff winning percentage at .572.
“We’ve been on both ends of come-from-behinds, we’ve been on both ends of back-and-forths,” Stephenson said. “You know we’ve experienced it all this year, so anything goes on Saturday night.”