In the mid of a four-game losing streak, the Binghamton women’s lacrosse team righted the ship and picked up its first victory of America East (AE) play with a 14-9 win over UMass Lowell. Despite entering halftime down 7-5, the Bearcats went on a nine-goal run, stemming from the end of the second quarter to third quarter, to come out on top over the River Hawks.

“I’m just really proud of this team,” said Binghamton head coach Stephanie Allen. “We’re a resilient group. So it was exciting to see them really battle with each other today — battle for each other — and when they put their minds to something, the sky’s the limit.”

The Bearcats (5-6, 1-1 AE) opened up the match with the first two goals, both of which were free position goals from the first sophomore midfielder Emma Blloshmi and senior attack Madison Murphy. UMass Lowell (8-2, 0-1 AE) responded with two straight goals of its own to knot things at 2-2. After a goal from junior attack Olivia Muscolino to give BU the lead once again, the River Hawks scored three goals to take a 5-2 lead at the end of one quarter.

“We had to take on a different perspective,” Allen said. “We were playing a little fearful in the beginning and maybe afraid to turn over the ball. We told them at this point in time, turnovers are going to happen — it’s going to be a sloppy day out there.”

The River Hawks scored the first two goals of the second quarter to extend their lead to 7-3. Eventually at the 6:19 mark, BU got back on the board as senior midfielder Kristen Scheidel and another from Blloshmi each found twine to make it a 7-5 game. The final 5:16 of the period saw no more scores as Binghamton trailed 7-5 going into halftime.

“I think obviously, the end of that first half, being a man up and then starting with possession of the ball, we just kind of had that weight lifted off of our shoulders,” Allen said.

The Bearcats outscored the River Hawks 7-0 in the third quarter to make it nine unanswered goals stemming from the end of the quarter. To start the quarter, BU scored four goals in four minutes with two goals from sophomore attack Carla Curth, a goal from Murphy and a goal from Scheidel take a 9-7 advantage. Later in the frame, Blloshmi found the back of the net and Murphy scored two goals to cushion BU’s lead at 12-7. The Binghamton offense held UMass Lowell to zero goals in the period to go into the fourth quarter with a 12-7 lead.

“Knowing we were going to have the possession, to begin with [and] rattling off those first couple in the second half, I think were huge momentum boosts and confidence builders for us,” Allen said.

The River Hawks stopped the bleeding with a goal at the 8:54 mark in the fourth quarter as Binghamton still led 12-8. The contest then went back and forth, with UMass Lowell and Binghamton trading goals. Blloshmi scored BU’s final goal of the match and as the clock winded down, Binghamton held its lead for a 14-9 comeback win.

“We’ve really got to value what we can,” Allen said. “We’ve got to battle for 50/50 balls on the ground, and we just got to buckle down on both ends of the field, defensively and offensively.”

The Bearcats will continue AE play against Vermont on Saturday, March 30. First draw control is set for 11 a.m. at Virtue Field in Burlington, Vermont.