ALBANY, N.Y. – Binghamton women's soccer (7-5-2, 4-1 America East) rattled off three straight goals in a downpour and moved into first place with a 3-1 road win at Albany Thursday night at Bob & Mary Casey Stadium. The victory also officially clinched the program's fourth straight postseason tournament berth – still with three regular season games remaining.

The host Great Danes struck first with a breakaway goal in the seventh minute. But BU responded with two before halftime and then added an insurance goal in a fully controlling second-half performance. It was the third time in the last five games that BU has scored three or more goals.

"I'm proud of our performance tonight," head coach Neel Bhattacharjee said. "We wanted to play at a high level against a quality side and we did that for 90 minutes. Give credit to both teams for battling the weather elements. We gave up an unfortunate early goal but didn't let that faze our game plan and had a strong response to work back later in the half and for the remainder of the match. That's three big points and now we get to recover a bit before making the trek to Maine to face another strong side." 

Senior forward Maya Anand, the league's leading scorer and point producer, netted her 10^th goal and added an assist to keep her perch. She now has 24 points on the season, fifth-most in program history. Anand also becomes just the third Bearcat to reach double-digit goals in a season, joining alums Tracy Kasmarcik and Kayla Saager, who each did it twice.

Trailing 1-0, BU struck for the equalizer in the 37^th minute when Anand fed senior midfielder Victoria McKnight on the right and McKnight whistled a 15-yard shot to the lower left corner for her fourth goal of the season.

Just 4:27 later, senior midfielder Olivia McKnight sent a long cross from the right that was headed down by an Albany defender. But the ball went right to sophomore defender Erin Hogan, who played it back to Anand inside the box. Anand made no mistake with her first touch, ripping it inside the near post from 14 yards for a 2-1 Bearcats lead.

The second half had just begun when BU delivered the dagger with a third goal. Victoria McKnight sent a free kick into the box from the left side. Anand struck a volley that the Great Danes' keeper tipped off the crossbar. The rebound came right to Olivia McKnight on the doorstep and she deposited the easy header into the net for her third goal of the season.

Binghamton held possession and created chances throughout the second half with 10 shots and five corners.

Sophomore keeper Kaitlyn Williams made five saves and BU's back line clamped down over the game's final 80 minutes to quiet the Albany offense.
 
NOTES
Binghamton snapped a two-game losing streak to Albany and improved to 12-8-3 in the all-time series … BU won for the fifth time in its last six games … The Bearcats have 27 goals in 14 games – tying for the most scored in a season since the regular season champion 2017 team also netted 27 (in 19 games) ... The Bearcats (4-1) sit atop the America East standings with 12 points. Maine (3-0-3) also has 12 points but with one fewer win and one more game played. Binghamton travels to Maine to meet the Black Bears Sunday afternoon in Orono.