The Binghamton University women’s lacrosse team opened its 2011 season on Sunday, facing off against the University of Louisville at the U of L Lacrosse Stadium. The Bearcats had a hard time with the Cardinals, eventually falling by a score of 18-4. The Bearcats have never won a season opener in the program’s 10-year history.
Binghamton faced off against Louisville in the season opener of last season and had a similar result, losing by a score of 19-8. BU was at home for that game, and a change of scenery did nothing to help the Bearcats overcome another face-off with the Cardinals.
The only time the Bearcats made their presence known was in the first half, where they netted all four of their total goals. However, Lousiville set the tone early when Katie Oliverio scored the first goal of the game just eight seconds into regulation. The Cardinals would go on to score another 10 goals in the first half alone and didn’t look back from there. Louisville took double the number of shots than the Bearcats did and even though Binghamton goalie Lauren Scott had 17 saves, the team just couldn’t find an answer for the relentless Cardinals.
“We had some bright spots but far too many dark spots,” said Binghamton head coach Tony Zostant. “Even though we were able to get 17 saves from our goalie we had way too many turnovers. Our offense never seemed to have the ball.”
The play of junior attack Lis Zuern was the only thing that the Bearcats could hang their hats on in the end. Zuern is coming off a productive 2010 season in which she played in all 15 games and scored 22 goals to go along with six assists. Zuern’s experience paid off against the Cardinals, as she scored all four goals for Binghamton. She scored two of those goals within the first 10 minutes of game time, giving Binghamton a brief lead that it was only able to hold for about three and a half minutes. Zuern also ended up being the only point-scorer for the team, with two of her goals being unassisted and the other two coming from free position.
“Lis did a nice job of beating her defender to the cage and she was very accurate,” Zostant said. “She did a great job of drawing fouls, which allowed her to take some shots from the free position.”
The leading scorer for the Cardinals was Bergen Foley, who is coming off a season in which she led the nation in goals scored. She netted six goals on the Bearcats, five of which came in the first half. Three of those goals came within a minute and a half of each other, putting Binghamton in a hole it couldn’t escape.
Penalties were also added to the list of problems for the Bearcats. There were three yellow cards handed out during the game, and all of them were against Binghamton.
“We never want to be playing a team like Louisville man-down, but I can’t fault the team for being aggressive,” Zostant said. “Some of the yellow cards came off of some bad calls, but they were more a product of the team playing hard and being aggressive.”
The next game for the Bearcats is set to be against the University of Connecticut, a team the Bearcats lost to last season by a score of 16-12.
“We have to work on clear-outs and turnovers,” Zostant said of the upcoming game against UConn. “As long as we value the ball, we feel we can be competitive.”
The Bearcats are set to travel to Storrs, Conn. on Friday, with face-off scheduled for 3 p.m.