Hoping to take advantage of having a first-round bye, a re-charged Stony Brook team will play Albany at home this upcoming Wednesday and hope to advance to the America East final.

By finishing second in the conference during the regular season, Stony Brook not only guaranteed themselves a home game, but an automatic bye into the semi-finals.

“We have a few guys banged up, so to give the guys some time to recover is good,” said head coach Ryan Anatol after the team’s 3-1 loss to Hartford in the regular season finale on Oct. 30, in a post-game interview with the Statesman.

Albany, the sixth and final seed in the tournament, overcame an early goal from Vermont’s Zach Paul to upset Vermont 3-2 to advance to the semi-final.

Vermont scored two own goals in the final three minutes of the game clinching a spot in the semi-finals after Vermont goalkeeper Dave Ramada had his kick out of the box deflected off the back of his own teammate and into the net with only 1:19 remaining in the match icing a win for the Great Danes.

During the regular season,  Stony Brook and Albany played to a scoreless draw despite going to overtime.

Berian Gobeil-Cruz, who was named the America East striker of the year and had a team-best seven goals, will lead an offense that finished first in the conference in goals and shots per-game.

In addition to Gobeil-Cruz, the Seawolves will be counting on America East midfielder of the year Leonardo Fernandes to produce.

Fernandes was second on the team to Gobeil-Cruz in goals with six, in addition to leading the team in assists with five.

On the defensive side, the team will be lead by captain Kyle McTurk, who earned his first appearance on the All-America East first-team.

Albany will be lead by second-team All-America East goalkeeper Adrian Foncette, as well as their leading goal-scorer Quintel Gates and All-America East freshman team forward Pomare Te Anau.

The winner of this game will move on to the finals and play either Boston University or UMBC/Hartford on either Nov. 12 or 13.