Before the season began, the coaches of the America East projected the Binghamton University women’s soccer team to be the fifth-best team in the conference.

The Bearcats had other plans.

After Binghamton’s 1-0 win at New Hampshire on Sunday afternoon, the Bearcats achieved the second-best record in the America East (6-2) to secure a first-round bye and a second-round home game in the upcoming AE tournament.

The Bearcats (9-6-1 overall) won nine of their last 12 games to finish the regular season. The 6-2 conference record is also the best AE win percentage that the team has had in Division I play (.750), besting the 8-3 (.727) conference record of the 2004 team, which advanced to the NCAA tournament.

BU head coach Sarah McClellan said that getting the No. 2 seed is a tremendous advantage moving forward.

“We really feel that we’ve got a great opportunity, not only to have the home game but to have the extra breath,” she said. “Our girls are fired up, we’re re-energizing and we’re gonna refocus and get back after it this week to prep for Sunday.”

McClellan also praised her team’s poise in the regular season finale at New Hampshire. She explained that upon the Bearcats’ arrival to the Wildcats’ regular grass field, they were informed that the game would be played on an alternate turf field instead.

“They were trying to rattle us in an unsportsmanlike way,” McClellan said. “They definitely knew that they would be moving the game to the turf field prior to us getting off the bus for our warm-up.”

But McClellan said that her team was unfazed by the surprise switch.

“That may have worked earlier in the season … as we were very young,” she said. “[But it] has no chance of working on our team at this point and this juncture that we’re at because we’re much more mature and much more professional. We’re gonna go out and stay focused on the game and play our game and we know that that’s what’s going to bring us over the top.”

The Bearcats’ home field is turf, so the field felt more like home to a certain degree. Nevertheless, the team responded with what it does best lately: winning matches.

“We are really zoned in on what we need to do and feel confident in our abilities to do that,” McClellan said. “We don’t have to worry about outside factors.”

The experience also taught the Bearcats something about the competitive environment of the America East tournament coming up.

“The win at New Hampshire did a real good job prepping us for the kind of cutthroat [nature] of tournament play,” McClellan said.

The Bearcats will play their first tournament game on Sunday, against the winner of Thursday’s match between New Hampshire (3-5 AE) and Maine (5-2-1). Binghamton defeated both of those teams during the regular season on road, both by a 1-0 score. But according to McClellan, the upcoming home game will not be the same as those regular season road games.

“It’s gonna be completely different,” she said. “We play extremely well on our turf field, and couldn’t have a bigger advantage than not having to be on the bus ride … We’ll be happy to play either team; we just feel like we’re in a good spot. At tournament time, everything’s on the line, so we have to really put our A-game out there.”

The achievement of the second seed is the highest conference finish for the Bearcats since 2006, when it was also the No. 2 seed.

“This is a new situation for our team to be in, to be the second seed,” McClellan said. “I don’t think that’s a weakness, but it is new to us. I think we’re gonna respond very well; we’ve beaten both teams that we’d play in the semifinals, and they’ll have to be playing on Thursday and then traveling to us while we just prepare.”

The Bearcats are a far cry from where they started the season. The team was held without a goal for its first four matches before finishing the season winning nine of 12, including six shutouts in that span. At this point, according to McClellan, the team has overcome its weaknesses.

“In terms of weaknesses, we’ve worked the kinks out,” she said. “We’re not gonna [need] to address weaknesses this week [in practice] as much as we’re gonna be sharpening our strengths. It’s our strengths that have really gotten us to this point, so we’re gonna continue to work on that.”

In last year’s tournament, the Bearcats held the No. 6 seed and traveled to New Hampshire to take on the Wildcats, who they upset by a score of 1-0. Binghamton fell in the next round to second-seeded Stony Brook 2-0. But McClellan sees one clear difference between last year’s team and this year’s.

“We’re so much deeper,” she explained. “We don’t fall off at all in putting any of our reserve players on the field … We have the abilities this year that if anyone is not having their best day, we have players all around them and on the sideline that are able to step up and perform well. I think that the biggest thing that we have going for us this year in our tournament play is our depth; we’re so much deeper than any of the conference teams.”

Elsewhere in the tournament, No. 4 Stony Brook (5-2-1 AE) is scheduled to take on No. 5 Albany (3-4-1) in the other quarterfinal match. The winner of that match will play top-seeded Boston University, which is seeking its third straight conference title and seventh in 10 seasons.

The Bearcats’ only two conference losses this season came at Boston (7-1) and at home against Stony Brook.

“Looking ahead,” McClellan said, “If we end up matching up against Boston or Stony Brook, which either one is likely, then I think our players would really welcome the opportunity to have another go at it.”

The Bearcats semifinal match is set for Sunday at 1 p.m. at the Bearcats Sports Complex.