The Binghamton women’s soccer team endured a tough weekend in its battles against two Pennsylvania teams, Saint Francis University and Duquesne, ultimately coming up with two losses.

Despite a lightning storm that halted the game against Saint Francis (2-2-2) after less than three minutes of play, the Bearcats (2-3-1) took on the Red Flash in the first game of the weekend. Charged and ready to go, sophomore forward Camryn Tirado of Saint Francis netted a goal in the first 15 minutes. The Bearcats, eager to get on the scoreboard as well, fired back with three shots within seven minutes of Tirado’s goal but none of the shots found the back of the net. All of the shots were taken by redshirt senior forward Kayla Saager, who was recently named the America East (AE) player of the week. Saager has already logged three goals and two assists for the season and has taken a total of 33 shots, ranking her number one in the AE for number of shots and number two in the conference for goals scored.

Throughout the rest of the first half, the Bearcats only had one more shot on goal, taken by sophomore forward Essie Bonney, which went wide. Freshman goalkeeper Haylee Poltorak let just one goal escape her and recorded four saves in the first half. Saint Francis more than doubled the number of shots taken by the Bearcats, outshooting Binghamton 12-5.

Entering the second half, Saager continued with the same energy she had in the first period and rifled two shots within the first six minutes. Neither of Saager’s shots found the back of the net, but Saint Francis senior midfielder Sara Suler was able to get a shot past Poltorak to extend Saint Francis’ lead to 2-0. The Bearcats launched seven more shots during the second half, but none were converted into scores. Saint Francis, however, was able to find the net once more in the 88th minute. Poltorak made six notable saves in the second half, thwarting a total of 10 shots on goal.

Following a game with no goals for the Bearcats, the team was looking to get on the scoreboard in its next match against Duquesne (2-2-0). Although the Bearcats had four shots in the first half and three shots in the second half, this was not enough for Binghamton to ensure a goal. Duquesne, however, was able to secure a goal in the second period of the game from a penalty kick off of a foul in the box by Saager. The penalty kick was enough for the Dukes to seal their 1-0 victory.

“Today was a tough way to end the weekend,” said BU head coach Neel Bhattacharjee via bubearcats.com. “We knew we were playing very good opposition with postseason experience so this gave us a chance to see how we stacked against quality opponents before we head into conference play soon. It’s frustrating to come away with a loss but it wasn’t necessarily easy to play two strong teams with just a day’s rest in-between. We cannot make excuses and we must be better in playing a full 90 minutes. We still need to put in a dominant full game performance and we still have a few more opportunities to fulfill that before America East play starts.”

The Bearcats are set for their next game against Manhattan College on Thursday, Sept. 6. Kickoff from Riverdale, New York is set for 6 p.m.