They’re confident, they’re on fire and this year they don’t intend to leave without a victory.

The Binghamton women’s basketball team begins its quest for the America East title in Hartford Friday against the UMBC Retrievers at 8:30 p.m. At the very least, the Bearcats hope to accomplish a first in their Division I tenure — a conference tournament victory.

“This game is huge,” said senior forward Jen Haubrich. “We’re refusing to lose Friday night.”

The Bearcats head into the tournament on a three-game winning streak, after destroying Vermont Saturday afternoon, 84-49, for their first victory ever at Patrick Gymnasium. The game saw fantastic performances from sophomore Laine Kurpniece and senior forward Rachel Laws, who each scored 21 points.

The winning streak comes after a rough stretch of five losses in six games. The Bearcats have put the streak behind them and seem more confident than ever.

“Winning the last three games, especially the last two games on the road, has been great,” said head coach Rich Conover. “We really want to keep the momentum going into Hartford.”

Binghamton’s first-round opponent is a familiar one. The Retrievers split the season series with the Bearcats, but handed them their worst loss of the year in Maryland last month, winning 63-37. UMBC used a stifling zone defense that limited Kurpniece’s impact in the paint, and forced the Bearcats to rely on outside shooting.

BU cracked the zone back home in Vestal, coming from behind to defeat the Retrievers 61-52 on Senior Day, kicking off this winning streak.

“I think at our gym we played much better against their zone, especially in the last 10 minutes,” Conover said. “We really controlled that game.”

In order to win and shed the label of tournament chokers, the Bearcats will need their shooters to step up, especially if the post players can’t get open down low. After the last game, UMBC head coach Phil Stern said his team has to worry about sophomore forward Laura Sario because of her ability to hit the outside shot.

For the senior class of Haubrich, Laws and Jen Blues, this game marks the last chance to win a conference tournament game. They believe this is their year.

“This is a good feeling for us,” Laws said. “Every year we haven’t been on top of our games going into the tournament, but this year I think we’re really rolling and it’s great for our confidence.”

Should the Bearcats get past the Retrievers, they will have the daunting task of taking on conference powerhouse Hartford in the second round, a team that has lost just once in conference play. They cannot look ahead however, as UMBC is a team that matches up extremely well with them.

The Bearcats have controlled their opponents’ inside game all season, most recently holding the conference’s most dominating post player Alexis Castro scoreless at Vermont, but hot perimeter-shooting teams like the Retrievers have been able to take advantage. The Bearcats need to shut down the Retrievers’ shooters in order to nab that first conference tournament victory.

“It’s going to take a big defensive effort,” Blues said. “We’re going to spend a week preparing, and if we work all week I think we should be very ready come Friday.”