The women's volleyball team extended its winning streak to four matches on Wednesday with a 3-0 sweep of Maine Maritime at home in the Morrell Gymnasium. The win improves the Polar Bears record for the season to 6-2, while the Mariners drop to 5-6 overall. The team has not lost a set since their match against Middlebury on September 11, a string of 12 consecutive matches.
Bowdoin used a balanced attack to cruise to an easy victory against the Mariners, winning the sets 25-20, 25-18 and 25-18.
Luisa LaSalle '14 led the team with nine kills while Hilary Cederna '13 put up eight kills, five digs and two blocks. Stephanie Drumright '11 and Ellie Brennan '14 notched six kills apiece with Sophie Cornew getting 24 assists.
Last Saturday, won 3-0 against Bates in a NESCAC match at Colby. The victory improved the team's NESCAC record to 2-0.
The Bobcats never successfully put up any resistance to the Bowdoin onslaught, with the Polar Bears winning 25-15, 25-14 and 25-15.
This victory was preceded by a 3-0 Polar Bear win against Colby on the Mules' own court to open conference play. The team prevailed with scores of 25-21, 25-21 and 25-15.
Head volleyball coach Karen Corey expressed her satisfaction with her squad's performance in weekend conference play. "The team had a really strong week," she said. "It was very important for us to get the conference wins over Bates and Colby. The NESCAC shows several strong teams and is super competitive again this year. For all the weekend matches many players contributed to our success."
"Ellie Brennan ['14] lead the team with 27 kills followed by Melissa Haskell ['13] with 22. Stephanie Drumwright ['11] earned seven serving aces in addition to 14 blocks," she added. "Taylor Vail ['14] earned the libero position last week at practice and had exceptional passing skills while Jill Berkman ['12] led us defensively with 46 digs."
Junior Kristin Hanczor shared similar sentiments.
"We were a bit slow against Colby and struggled to finish the game out, keeping scores fairly close," she said. "Saturday morning we started out with a lot of fire and pushed through for a strong win. Everyone showed a lot of confidence and heart, and we were able to work really well together on the court. Starting out [with] a 2-0 [lead] over the other Maine teams is exactly where we need to be to reach our goal of getting to the top of the conference."
The team heads west this weekend, traveling to Illinois to compete in the Wheaton Invitational. The Polar Bears open with a pair of matches against Benedictine University and Carrol University on Friday before playing Wheaton College and Monmouth College on Saturday.