VESTAL, N.Y. - Riding a five-game unbeaten streak, Binghamton women's soccer (8-2-1, 2-0 America East) heads across Interstate 88 to face defending conference champion Albany (5-3-2, 2-0 AE) at 7 p.m. Thursday night at Casey Stadium.

The Bearcats have started 2-0 in America East play for the first time in school history but will face a strong test from an Albany team that has won three of the last four America East titles and is riding a seven-game unbeaten streak this fall.

Binghamton is coming off a 2-0 road win at New Hampshire on Sunday. In that game, BU was outshot but scored twice in the final 22 minutes to snap an eight-game winless skid to the Wildcats. Junior forward and second-half substitute Sarah Dibble registered a goal and an assist and freshman forward Maya Anand scored her first collegiate goal. 

Dibble was rewarded as the league's co-Offensive Player of the Week and she was joined in the honors column by sophomore keeper Haylee Poltorak (Defensive Player of Week) and Anand (Rookie of Week). Poltorak made four saves and earned her fifth shutout of the season. It was the second time this season that three Bearcats were honored and BU now has eight different players who have been recognized with weekly awards - the most of any women's soccer program in the 25-year history of the America East. 

Freshman midfielder Olivia McKnight notched her fourth assist of the season and is tied for the league lead in points with 12 (4 goals, 4 assists). Junior forward Essie Bonney (5 goals) ranks second in the conference in goals and third in points (10). Poltorak has a 0.98 goals against average, which ranks third. Junior forward Dora Hayes (3-3=9) was featured at No. 6 on ESPN's SportsCenter Top Plays on Sept. 22 after her brilliant goal against Vermont. She is tied for sixth in the conference in scoring. 

Albany has started America East play with back-to-back wins over Hartford (2-1) and UMBC (1-0). After beginning the season 0-3, the Great Danes are 5-0-2. Albany is 4-0-1 at home this fall. 

Sophomore twin sisters Jasmine and Jada Colbert continue to spark the Great Danes. Jada is the reigning America East Rookie of the Year and second team all-conference selection and has four goals and two assists for a team-high 10 points. Jasmine was an all-rookie selection up front, where she has four goals in eight starts this fall. In net, junior keeper Sophia Chen has allowed only five goals in seven games (AE best 0.67 GAA) with three shutouts. 

Binghamton and Albany have two common opponents - St. Francis and Cornell. Each team beat St. Francis with Albany posting a 3-0 win and BU getting a 2-0 result. Binghamton tied Cornell 1-1 three days after Albany notched a 1-0 home win over the Big Red.

Since both programs elevated to Division I, Binghamton leads the all-time series 10-6-2, although the Great Danes have won three of the last four head-to-head encounters, including a 1-0 win last October in Vestal. Ten of the last 11 games have been decided by one goal or less and each of the last three has been a 1-0 decision.