VESTAL, N.Y. - Binghamton women's soccer (10-5-2, 4-3-1 America East) withstood a torrential downpour and strong winds to push past visiting UMBC (2-13-2, 1-7 AE) 2-0 in the regular season finale Thursday night at the Bearcats Sports Complex.

The game was finally halted with 4:58 remaining when the turf finally reached its saturation point, but not before BU secured its fourth conference win of the season and locked up the No. 5 seed for the upcoming America East tournament. Binghamton will face No. 4 New Hampshire in a quarterfinal game Sunday in Durham. The winner gets a trip to Long Island to face No. 1 Stony Brook next Thursday night.

After the Retrievers had the better of play over the first 10 minutes, BU struck for two goals in a 9:27 span to take control. In the 13th minute, junior forward Dora Hayes started a pretty passing play for her fourth goal of the season. Hayes rolled a back pass in the middle to freshman midfielder Olivia McKnight, who sent a ball out wide on the right to Essie Bonney. The speedy junior then rolled a perfect cross to the goalmouth, where Hayes redirected it in from close range. 

Less than 10 minutes later, junior forward Sarah Dibble broke down the left side of the box and put a cross into the middle, where it squirted free to McKnight, whose soft chip carried over the UMBC keeper and into the top right corner. The tally was McKnight's fifth of the season, tying her with Bonney for the team lead. 

The rain picked up in the second half and sheets of water carried across the field, containing both offenses. 

Junior keeper Mackenzie Hanna needed to make just one save for her second straight shutout - and Binghamton's eighth shutout of the season. 

"Tonight we are very pleased with a total team performance," head coach Neel Bhattacharjee said. "We have had numerous contributors throughout the season and that was very evident tonight in so many ways and that depth helped to manage minutes prior to an important quarterfinal this Sunday. UMBC is a good team that plays an effective possession style and we needed a mature and professional type of performance to get a result.

"We also knew that the elements were something that we would have to play through and we managed that well through the downpours and wind. It is good we are heading into the postseason portion of our schedule with momentum and confidence.  We know New Hampshire is a very tough opponent that has had strong results in conference play so we need to be focused on recovery and get mentally prepared for the biggest game of the season now."

NOTES
With the victory, BU reached double-digit wins for the second time in three years ... the team will advance to the postseason for the 11th time in 16 years.