The women’s volleyball team defeated UMass Boston in a fiercely-fought battle last Tuesday. The 3-0 victory came in the wake of Bowdoin’s first season loss at the MIT Invitational last weekend against Springfield College. 
Tuesday’s win marked the second time the Polar Bears bested the Beacons this year, improving the team’s record to 11-1 while UMass fell to 9-5. 
Though Bowdoin came away with a shutout win, the individual sets were closely contested. In the first, Bowdoin recouped a two-point deficit late in the game to take the win 25-23. 
They replicated this come-from-behind success in the second set, which ended with a tense back and forth that drove the score to 30-28 before the Polar Bears finally locked the win. After this struggle, the third set came relatively easily, and the team clinched the match with a 25-21 victory.
Melissa Haskell ’13 was integral to  Bowdoin’s offense, racking up 18 kills and 10 digs. Christy Jewett ’16 also made an important offensive contribution with nine kills.
This dramatic win came after the team’s 3-1 showing this past weekend at the MIT Invitational, played at Endicott College. 
In the first match of that tournmanent Bowdoin suffered its first loss of 2012 to Springfield College with a final score of 3-1. Though Bowdoin won the first set 15-25, the team failed to capitalize on this momentum as the match progressed and lost the next three sets 25-15, 25-16, 25-18. 
 In the loss to Springfield, Haskell  again led the team with nine  kills while Emi Gaal ’15 and Ellie Brennan ’14 racked up seven each. 
Bowdoin quickly rebounded, cruising to an easy 3-0 victory over Mount Ida later in the night, with set scores of 25-17, 25-16, 25-15. 
In the match against Mount Ida several of the team’s first-year players shone. Hailey Wahl ’16 led offensively with seven kills and McKenzie Kessel ’16 getting nine digs as libero. 
The team went on to sweep both matches on Saturday, triumphing over Roger Williams and Newbury College in a pair of 3-0 wins with set scores of 25-13, 25-23, 25-11, and 25-11, 25-20, 25-17 respectively. 
Finishing the weekend 3-1, the Polar Bears came in fourth in the tournament and Haskell was named to the All-Tournament Team.
“The loss to Springfield was really disappointing, but I’m happy with the team’s performance on the weekend overall,” said Captain Tory Edelman ’13. “Despite the loss I feel like we’ll come out of the tournament a better team. This loss was exactly the wake up call that we needed to make sure that we stay sharp and focused on our skills. I’m really glad it wasn’t to a NESCAC team.” 
The Polar Bears return to the court this weekend at home in the Morrell Gym with a pair of conference matches. The action starts tonight against Wesleyan at 8 p.m. and continues tomorrow at 2 p.m. against Connecticut College.