Over the weekend, men's tennis established itself as the team to beat, easily dispatching Tufts on Sunday and Wesleyan on Monday. The Polar Bears now have a record of 6-2 (2-0 NESCAC). Following the defeat, Tufts falls to 7-3 (1-1 NESCAC).
During the Spring Break trip to California, the team found success on the singles side but mixed results when it came to doubles play. They dropped doubles matches against both Pomona and Trinity University, both ranked in the top-12 nationally.
Coach Colin Joyner has made it a point to focus on doubles this spring.
"We clearly have more improvement to be made in doubles, so we are focusing heavily on doubles in practice over the next two weeks," he said.
"Our singles lineup has been impressive so with gains in doubles the team is looking strong to contend among the top teams in the NESCAC and has potential to break into the top 10 nationally in the coming weeks," he added.
It seems the team has progressed faster than anticipated, particularly the doubles teams of Stephen Sullivan '11 and Kent Winingham '12 and Andrew Won '12 and Casey Grindon '13. Both teams netted victories for the Bears.
Now ranked 14th in the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association poll, Bowdoin has an even more difficult weekend up ahead. They have road matches in Massachusetts against MIT—ranked 20th in the nation—on Friday and Amherst—ranked 4th—on Saturday. The next home match will be against top-ranked Middlebury on April 16.