The Bowdoin Orient

With the end of the men’s basketball season comes the completion of the 75th year of the varsity program at Bowdoin College. However, the first team that came together in 1941 is notably different from the team that runs the court of Morrell Gymnasium today. 

When a squad of 18 Bowdoin students tried out for Coach George “Dinny” Shay in December of 1941, they played in Sargent Gymnasium on a non-regulation-sized court, with old backboards and only a few weeks to prepare for their first game against the University of Maine. Without any funding from the College, Shay and his team of rookies were forced to play all away games and the players had to provide their own trunks and shoes. 

Despite these setbacks, the program started and stuck, in large part due to the persistence of Malcolm Morrell, the College’s director of athletics at the time. Morrell advocated strongly for the creation of a team since Bowdoin was one of the only colleges in New England that did not sponsor a college basketball team. In addition, the NCAA was pushing many colleges at the time to continue adding new teams despite the wartime efforts that took students and resources from the programs.

The College already had in place fraternity leagues as well as a freshman team that competed against local high schools, which gave Shay a solid pool of interested athletes when it came to building his roster. 

The first varsity squad played six away games over the course of the season against fellow Maine schools Colby, Bates and the University of Maine. Though the team lost all six matches, a few close games and a high degree of demonstrated interest solidified the existence of the program for the years to come.

A few years later, the program had developed significantly. The team began its first formal campaign after the war years led by captain Edward “Packy” McFarland ’48, while his infant son Edward “Bo” McFarland Jr. ’69, now a volunteer coach with Bowdoin’s men’s basketball team, crawled around the floors of Sargent Gymnasium.

While the creation of the team and the facilities available lagged behind many of Bowdoin’s peer schools in the program’s early years, in 1965 Polar Bear basketball leapt ahead of the rest of the league with the unveiling of the “new gym”—Morrell Gymnasium.

Bo McFarland came to Bowdoin in the fall of 1965 in time for the unveiling of the new gym and remembers the standard it set across the league.

“It was a big deal,” he said. “When Morrell Gym opened up, I remember as a freshman going in there and every afternoon you could see hundreds of guys playing pick-up games—I mean hundreds. It was state-of-the-art and it’s still one of the more enjoyable places to go watch a game.”

Building the new gym was a leap of faith by the College since the basketball team had gone 23 years without a winning season. Yet only two years later the 1967-68 team achieved Bowdoin’s first winning season with a record of 15-6.

“From that moment on, [basketball] teams began to win at Bowdoin,” said McFarland ’69. “Just picture the Morrell Gym with standing room only and people lining the sidelines watching games. We used to pack the place in and it was a lot of fun.”

Bo McFarland became captain the following year, improving the team’s season to a record of 16-5 and entrenching himself in the Bowdoin record books. He was the first Polar Bear to reach the 1,300 career points benchmark and his career points per game average of 21.9 remains the best in Bowdoin history today.

Since 1969, the program has been relatively consistent in performance and staff. The team has only had two head coaches in the last 55 years—Ray Bicknell and current Head Coach Tim Gilbride.

However, as Bo McFarland has seen over his lifetime, the game played in Morrell Gym today is very different from that of his father’s era.

“I remained close to the program because of my father’s experience there,” said Bo McFarland. “You get to know a lot of the people over the years. They would come to our house and reminisce about the days of basketball, how basketball was changing so much. If they were alive today they would be astonished as to what basketball looks like today versus what it looked like in the 40s and 50s.”

And today’s team is still different in a number of ways, the most visible being the size of the players.

“Even in 1965 and when I graduated in ’69, we only had one guy who was 6’5” and he was our only tall guy,” said Bo McFarland. “Whereas this year’s roster, I think we had seven, maybe eight guys who were 6’5” and over. So that’s a huge difference in terms of the style of play, because the speed of the game has increased and the size of the players has increased, and the athletic ability of the players is better, quite frankly.”

Changes in style of play have been accompanied by rule changes that have drastically impacted the game. Major shifts include the addition of the three-point line, which was implemented by the NCAA in 1986, and the establishment of a 45-second shot clock in the mid-1980s. 

The program’s recruiting process has developed and changed significantly over its history as well.

“The biggest shift has been in the amount of time that you have to spend out of season recruiting,” said Gilbride. “When I started, a lot of coaches—most coaches—were doing two sports and you had to recruit for both sports, but it wasn’t to the amount of time and energy and effort that you have to put into it now. You don’t have enough time to be recruiting all year for one sport and recruiting for another sport.”

Across the nation, the timeline of recruiting has shifted to earlier in students’ high school careers and has become more intensive during summers. This year-round commitment aligns with another national trend in collegiate athletics: specialization.

“It’s becoming harder and harder for men and women to do two sports in college, and even in high school,” said Bo McFarland. “If you’re going to be a basketball player, you’re playing basketball all year long, you’re on a team and you’re playing in the summer months.”

This present-day practice is drastically different from the 1970s and earlier, when playing more than one varsity sport was so common it dictated the College’s participation, or lack thereof, in postseason tournaments.

During Bo McFarland’s time on the varsity basketball and baseball teams, the programs were not permitted to compete in any sort of postseason play even though the team’s performance was strong enough to qualify. It was seen as dangerous to the students’ academics and a disadvantage to the subsequent season’s teams. 

“The concern was that dragging these seasons on was going to affect our performance in the classroom,” said Bo McFarland. “For instance, the nine starters on the baseball team all played another sport—every one of us—and the feeling was, if you were in a tournament, like a basketball tournament, and your baseball season was getting ready to begin, that [it] would be unfair to the academic side of the house.”

While there are no limitations on Bowdoin teams participating in postseason tournaments today, maintaining a balance between athletics and academics is a task that has challenged Bowdoin athletes of all eras. 

Although the facilities, rules and recruiting have evolved over time, there are some aspects of the sport that have stayed the same.

“Watching college basketball is still a favorite pastime of mine,” said Bo McFarland. “I love it, and to this day I believe [Morrell Gym] ranks way up there in terms of a good place to watch a game and to play a game.”

This weekend, the women’s swimming and diving team put forward a number of record-breaking performances as 11 teams flooded the LeRoy Greason Pool for NESCAC championships.

The meet was highlighted by a number of accomplishments, from 12 new Bowdoin records—10 swimming and two diving—to Diving Coach Kelsey Willard being named NESCAC Diving Coach of the Year for the second consecutive season.

“Receiving that award, it’s really nice that my other peer coaches in the NESCAC recognize what goes into it,” said Willard. “But I can’t take too much credit because the work that the athletes are putting in is what gives me that award. Having three of them in the top eight—they’re contributing the most points out of any of the other divers to the team and that’s where that award comes from.”

Divers Christine Andersen ’17, Thea Kelsey ’20 and Rebecca Stern ’19 all placed in the top eight in both diving events, a main goal of Willard’s and the team’s for the season. Andersen’s dominant performances not only garnered second-place finishes in both the one-meter and three-meter dives but also set new school records in both events, breaking Victoria Tudor’s ’06 scores from 2006.

For the past few years, NESCAC Championships have been a time to set many school bests. Last year the women’s team broke 14 Bowdoin records at the meet.

“Records are made to be broken,” said Willard. “They are always aware of the records, but being able to see that they can surpass them gives them just the sense of accomplishment that is the whole point of being able to break a record. It’s not necessarily about the number more than that self-assurance that they’re capable.”

While breaking records continues a trend for the program, a particularly noteworthy record was broken this year by Marshall Lowery ’20—Ruth Reinhard’s ’93 200 backstroke time of 2:05.27 from 1993—the oldest remaining team record.

“One of my favorite parts about breaking that record was knowing that it is representative of how amazing a coach we have because it was the last record that [Head Coach Brad Burnham] had not seen set,” said Lowery. “Now that I’ve broken that record, he has coached every single record holder on the Bowdoin women’s swim team, and I think that’s pretty impressive.”

In addition, Andersen, Lowery and Sterling Dixon ’19 earned NESCAC All-Conference recognition for their top-three finishes in individual events.

Though the team has seen improvement each year, the Polar Bears remain in the middle of the league, finishing sixth at NESCACs for the second consecutive year. According to Head Coach Brad Burnham, the team’s unchanging overall finish correlates with the entire sport getting faster.

As the team looks ahead to potential NCAA qualifications, striving for big goals is one aspect of team culture that can help propel the program into the upper echelon of the conference.

“Training with people who have big goals helps you have big goals too,” said Lowery. “I am hoping that having those goals and fostering a team that has similar goals to me will help create a team where everyone is invested and people are very ambitious, and fostering a team like that would help us move up in the NESCAC rankings and have more of a national presence.”

While the swimmers will have to wait until next week to find out if they qualify for the NCAA championship, the process for diving is notably different and four of the five members of the women’s and men’s dive squads have already qualified for the regional meet that precedes Nationals, a new high for the program.

On Sunday, a record number of more than 300 girls from midcoast Maine flooded Farley Field House for the College’s National Girls and Women in Sports Day program. The theme of the day, as Assistant Coach of Women’s Soccer Ellery Gould ’12 said, was empowerment. 

The girls rotated through 11 different stations run by Bowdoin student athletes. Many tried sports such as sailing, field hockey, track and field, soccer, rowing, rugby, ultimate frisbee, basketball, tennis, lacrosse and softball for the first time.

The athletic department has organized the program for the past 15 years to celebrate National Girls and Women in Sports Day and to bring Bowdoin student-athletes and community members together through sport. According to Ashmead White Director of Athletics Tim Ryan, community interest has continued to grow every year.

The surge in interest in the event is likely related to an increase in advertising and outreach through local schools and social media, an effort Gould identified as one of the main goals for this year’s program.

The early session brought over 200 girls in kindergarten through third grade and the afternoon brought an additional hundred girls from fourth to twelfth grade, in addition to the many Bowdoin athletes and coaches that helped organize and run the stations.

“I was only anticipating maybe 200 girls [in total] so I think the fact that it’s grown so much is great,” said Gould. “And the more that we can grow it and get more girls involved, the better.”

The day provides girls in the surrounding community an opportunity to both try new sports and learn more about familiar sports in an enthusiastic and engaging setting, while also gaining positive role models. This year’s turnout bodes well for the development of the program.

“In order for this event to be successful you need all teams to participate and to participate with full enthusiasm about their sport,” said Mettler Growney ’17. “That happened and that’s why we were so successful and have been so successful. It really starts with us and we have the ability to get younger girls in the area interested.”

The tone for the day was set early on, with the girls bringing eagerness and excitement to each station.

“The energy was really high and I think that came from the girls just being really excited,” said Gould. “And then our students did a great job being engaged and showing their passion for their sport and their knowledge for their sport, so they fed off the energy of the little girls.”

“It was pretty organic. We weren’t super rigid and it just flowed really well. On the day, we had 200-plus girls running in, so much energy, they’re bouncing off the walls and then we just brought them all together and from there it ran itself because of the students and how well they were able to work with the little ones,” she added.

Growney noted the importance of sparking interest in girls when they’re young—especially as similar experiences led her to play both field hockey and lacrosse at Bowdoin. However, according to Growney, the young girls aren’t the only ones benefiting from the day.

“It’s such a great opportunity to give back to the sport and younger girls in the community,” said Growney. “It feels good to give that back and to get more girls excited and to kind of pass the torch down. It’s a really rewarding experience to see these girls all excited about a brand new sport and having learned from other girls and women in the community.”

Gould found it gratifying to grow interest in female athletes and to see girls of all ages feel empowered to try new things.               

“At the end of the day, I just felt really accomplished,” said Gould. “[The girls’] confidence stepping right into this new sport, grabbing a frisbee for the first time or running into a rugby pad and jumping with a rugby ball—to see these young girls come in with so much energy and confidence was really rewarding and exciting for the future of women’s athletics.”

CBS News Correspondent Jack Ford came to Bowdoin last Friday to speak about the connections between sports, the law and the media that he has been able to witness firsthand through his unique career as a journalist, trial attorney, author and teacher. 

During his talk and an interview with the Orient, Ford brought up some of the major legal issues facing collegiate sports, such as recruiting, aid and paying student-athletes. He also discussed the impacts the media can have on the development and response to legal cases, citing his experience with the OJ Simpson trial, which he covered for almost nine months.

“With sports at the center, you have the notion of the media shining a light on it and you have the notion of the attacks on the concepts of amateur sports, and also how the media is covering the legal challenges,” Ford said in an interview with the Orient. “They’re all inextricably interwoven and that’s why we’re throwing them all into the mix, into the conversation.”

A key factor in how the media covers legal matters is the ever-increasing presence of opinion in reporting, particularly in broadcast journalism.

“Nowadays when you go on the air you almost always have to be shouting opinions, throwing bombs, and I’m sort of the old school journalism where I look at it as my role is to explain,” said Ford. “Being able to do that for the last 25 years, to me, it just is an interesting opportunity to help people understand the justice system … As long as people understand and respect the process, they might disagree with the result but they’re going to at least accept the legitimacy of the process.”

Ford refers to his career in journalism as an accidental career. He graduated from Yale with every intention of becoming a trial lawyer, attending Fordham University School of Law and then working as a prosecutor and trial attorney. He’s handled a series of notable cases, including the first death penalty trial in the Northeast.

After a live interview about the death penalty case, Ford was invited to be a legal analyst for CBS due to his comfort on camera, which Ford attributes to his experience on his college football coach’s weekly show as well as his appearances on “Jeopardy!” that helped fund his legal education. Ford continued working in television and law for a few years before transitioning to journalism full time.

“It was never a planned progression,” said Ford. “That’s why when I teach, I always say be alert for what’s around the corner because it might be something that you never anticipated … but it might be something that you decide to latch onto and it could change your life dramatically.”

Ford expressed that his time spent as a visiting undergraduate lecturer at Yale is his favorite job because it enables him to have a thoughtful exchange of ideas and perspectives with the students. Through his time in academia, Ford has been able to reflect back on his college experience.

“I was a student during the late ’60s-early ’70s when Vietnam was literally tearing the fabric of colleges apart. In the middle of all this we had the Black Panthers being tried in 1970 in New Haven and there was a sense that that could make the town and the campus explode,” said Ford. “It didn’t because I think people at Yale handled it so well and gave everybody the opportunity to talk and express themselves and do protesting, but safely.”

“So for me, college was a different time,” said Ford. “I showed up at Yale with everything I owned in a single duffel bag … and left four years later with everything I’d need for the rest of my life, and that was because of the college experience.”

On Saturday, defending NESCAC champion Bowdoin (11-4, 6-4 NESCAC) will take on defending national champion Middlebury (12-3, 7-3 NESCAC) in the quarterfinals of the NESCAC field hockey playoffs.

Familiar foes, last season the Polar Bears and Panthers met three times: in the regular season, in the NESCAC Championship and in the NCAA Division III Championship. Though Bowdoin emerged victorious from the first two matchups, Middlebury won the last game, taking the national title and putting an end to Bowdoin’s perfect season.

When the teams faced off in the regular season this year, Middlebury came away with a close 3-2 win, although Bowdoin held a 7-4 edge in penalty corners and outshot the Panthers 13-7.

“I definitely think there’s revenge this Saturday and we’re almost in the better spot because of it,” said captain Kimmy Ganong ’17. “As of now [Middlebury has] beaten us already this season and they have the national championship from last year so we have a lot more to play for. They’re probably just sitting there thinking they’re safe and that they’ll beat us but I think that we as a team are peaking right now ... We know that we definitely can beat [Middlebury] and come from behind.”

Bowdoin enters the tournament as the fifth seed—the first time they won’t host their quarterfinal matchup since 2009—while Middlebury sits at No. 4. The two teams’ seeds come as a bit of a surprise since they have faced off in the championship match of the tournament for the last five years and are currently both ranked in the top five nationally. The fact that this notable matchup will be taking place in just the quarterfinals of the tournament speaks to an exceptional level of competition in the league this year.

“There’s more parity in the league this year than I’ve ever witnessed before,” said Head Coach Nicky Pearson. “We’ve always felt that every single NESCAC team that we play is going to be a really challenging game and we certainly feel it this year and that you certainly can’t underestimate any team. On any given day if we don’t show up and play our very best, there’s a chance you’re going to lose that game. It keeps you on your toes for sure.”

The tournament is set to be highly competitive on a national level as well. Of the eight teams competing, seven are ranked in the top 20 in the nation, with No. 8 seed Bates close behind.

Bowdoin hopes their extensive postseason experience will give their players a distinct advantage when facing the intensity of this year’s tournament.

“To have been in the championship game for the last five years speaks volumes for the players on the team,” said Pearson. “We have a number of players on our team that really know what it takes to be successful in the NESCAC tournament and they will draw on their experience from the last few years and be really ready for how competitive those games are going to be.”

Coming off an undefeated regular season and a NESCAC title, Bowdoin has faced some hard-fought losses this season, falling to Hamilton and Williams in the same weekend earlier in October and Tufts on Wednesday. While their record doesn’t support it, the Polar Bears controlled all three of those games, outshooting each opponent by double digits as well as earning more penalty corners.

“Although we aren’t winning on the scoreboard, we’re definitely outplaying our opponents in all the games that we lost,” said Ganong. “We’re not handing any team the win, we’re fighting until the very end.”

The Tufts loss was particularly disappointing as the Polar Bears had four times the number of shots as the Jumbos, had a 20-3 edge in penalty corners and had two goals called back.

“Just a frustrating game all around,” said Ganong. “But obviously just adding to our desire to keep the season going and beat [Middlebury] on Saturday.”

One of the most surprising aspects of the league this season is the rise of Hamilton (11-4, 7-3 NESCAC), who enter the tournament seeded third—the highest seed in program history—and are looking for their first playoff victory to continue their six-game win streak. In 2012, the Continentals went 0-14, yet have steadily improved each season, earning NESCAC bids for the last two years. Pearson attributes Hamilton’s strong performance this season to talent and determination.

“[Hamilton has] some exceptional players, their goalkeeper is playing very well and even though they lost a couple of games at the beginning of the season, they beat Middlebury early in the season and I think that probably was the turnaround game for them,” said Pearson. “After they won that game I think they really believed that they could beat anybody.”

In what is sure to be an exciting postseason, the Polar Bears will face the Panthers at 1 p.m. at Middlebury on Saturday.

The Bowdoin College Athletic Hall of Honor was established in 2002 “to perpetuate the memory of those persons who have brought distinction, honor and excellence to Bowdoin through their accomplishments in athletics.” Initially inducting a class of five members every year, the selection committee transitioned to classes of six members biannually in 2010. The Class of 2016 honorees joined the ranks of Bowdoin sports legends this year at Homecoming.

Since its creation, the Hall has honored exceptional athletes, coaches and staff who have impacted Bowdoin—from the very beginnings of the athletic program to the inception of athletic training, from the formation of women’s teams to their domination on courts and fields.

The inaugural class included Bowdoin sports icons Joan Benoit Samuelson ’79, who won gold at the 1984 Summer Olympics in the first-ever women’s marathon, and Sidney J. Watson, renowned hockey coach who led the Polar Bears to four ECAC Division II titles and a record of 326-210-11 over the course of his 24-year career at the College. 

As this year’s class joins this illustrious group, they remarked on the widespread impacts being a part of Bowdoin Athletics has had on their lives.

“I definitely think that playing basketball and playing sports in general is a metaphor for life,” said Lora Trenkle Cooperman ’04. “It’s something that I’ve carried on in my years post-Bowdoin, working in finance and having to work long hours and putting in the extra time.”

“I’ve always felt that being involved in athletics requires discipline and character,” said Leo J. Dunn III ’75. “You’ve got to fit that in with studies and everything else, but that’s the way I was brought up and that’s the way I’ve approached things in work and life.” 

The dedication and determination this class brings to everything they do is clearly evident in their widespread accomplishments and the legacy they’ve left on Bowdoin Athletics.

O. Jeanne d'Arc Mayo

As the first female physical therapist and athletic trainer on Bowdoin's campus, Mayo was integral in the development of women's athletics at Bowdoin. She arrived on campus at a time when athletic training services were dedicated solely to men, and took it upon herself to see through the creation of high-quality facilities and resources for women as well, consistently fighting for equal access and opportunity in sports throughout her career.

Robert H. Pfeiffer '67

Over the course of his life, Pfeiffer has demonstrated a level of excellence and commitment to lacrosse as a player, coach and official. He was Bowdoin’s first All-American in lacrosse in addition to being a standout player and leader on the hockey and football teams. After graduating, Pfeiffer went on to coach lacrosse at the University of New Hampshire, Middlebury and Colby and officiate intercollegiate games throughout New England.

Edward M. Good '71

Good was a talented player and leader of the men’s ice hockey team during a historically great time for the program. Described as “the engine that drove” the team during these years, he led the team to sixteen consecutive wins and an ECAC finals appearance his junior year and guided the team to their first ECAC championship title as a captain his senior year. A legendary scorer for the program, he graduated as Bowdoin’s all-time leader in points and remains fourth all-time in points per game today.

Leo J. Dunn III '75

During Dunn’s time at Bowdoin, he demonstrated not only immense talent on the track and football teams, but also a deep commitment to the Bowdoin community. After captaining the track team his senior season, he graduated with six Bowdoin records in both indoor and outdoor track, earning Division III All-American and All New England honors. He was awarded the Elmer Longley Hutchinson Cup for high conduct on and off the field as well as the Polar Bear Award for his service to Bowdoin.

Darcy Storin Resch '96

Resch dominated cross country and indoor and outdoor track at Bowdoin as well as on the national stage. Her Bowdoin record in the 1500 meters remains untouched 20 years later and she earned an astounding ten All-American honors during her career. In addition to numerous regional titles and honors, she was a Division III Outdoor Track National Champion twice and finished in the top three at NCAA Championships five times, making her one of the most accomplished female athletes in Bowdoin history.

Lora Trenkle Cooperman '04

Last Saturday, Middlebury dealt the field hockey team its first loss this season in a brutal 3-2 defeat. The loss knocked Bowdoin to the No. 2 spot nationally, falling behind Messiah College but staying ahead of Middlebury at No. 3.

The Polar Bears controlled most of the game, leading the Panthers in shots on goal 13-7 as well as penalty corners 7-4. However, an inability to take advantage of scoring opportunities as well as some defensive mistakes helped Middlebury take a lead that Bowdoin could not overcome.

“We didn’t convert on our chances and had a couple of defensive breakdowns that [Middlebury] took advantage of,” said Head Coach Nicky Pearson. “That’s what happens when you play a good team. If you don’t take your opportunities and then have some defensive breakdowns, they’re going to make you pay for that, and they did.”

This isn’t the first time Middlebury has ruined the Polar Bears’ attempt at a perfect season; the Panthers beat Bowdoin in the NCAA Championship Final in 2011 and 2015, putting an end to the Polar Bears’ extensive win streaks both seasons. However, this matchup is the first time the team has lost to Middlebury in the regular season since 2012.

The two programs are consistently at the top of the NESCAC and national rankings, which led to three regular and postseason showdowns last year. This year’s close-fought matchup sets the stage for a very competitive postseason should the two teams face off again, but the Polar Bears are confident in their prospects should that happen.

“In Saturday’s game we actually controlled more of the game than we had in those two [postseason] games last year and limited their opportunities,” said Pearson. “That’s probably what was frustrating for us, but we learned and took many things from the game.”

While Middlebury’s talent highlighted some necessary areas of improvement for Bowdoin, the game also showcased the young team’s strengths and progress so far.

“As a team, one of our goals is to practice the way that we’re going to play and to implement a lot of our drills into our games, and that was our second goal against Middlebury,” said captain Emily McColgan ’17. “We take the positives and negatives from that game and that was a huge positive. Something that we worked on in practice was directly translated into our game play.”

The team’s determination and drive haven’t wavered as it looks ahead to the rest of its season.

“Every time we go into a game, our goal is to win,” said McColgan. “So coming out from a loss, we didn’t reach our goal for one game, but we still have the potential to reach our goal for the rest of our season, keep on our path and try to win every other game that we play in.”

The team bounced back on Wednesday when it faced Wellesley at home, defeating the Blue 4-0. With a strong focus on offensive opportunities, the Polar Bears dominated the game with a 21-1 edge in shots on goal and a 14-1 advantage in penalty corners. The teams last faced each other in the 2015 NCAA Regional Final where a 3-0 shutout sent the Polar Bears to the Final Four.

Even after facing two top-20 teams in the same week, the team hasn’t let rankings or predictions alter its approach.

“Our preparation is consistent,” said Pearson. “We don’t want to be a yo-yo team where we feel like we have to raise our game for this because it’s a more important game than this one or this is a non-conference game so it’s not as important as a NESCAC game—that’s a dangerous game to play and we really stay away from that.”

The Polar Bears will continue their campaign with three home games next week, starting off with a matchup against the University of Southern Maine at 6 p.m. on Monday.

Jerry LeVasseur is one of the toughest guys on campus, according to Cross Country Head Coach Peter Slovenski.

At 78 years old, LeVasseur is a volunteer coach with the cross country and track and field teams and still competes frequently in road races and senior games at regional, national and international levels.

“[LeVasseur] would run a road race on a Saturday, then drive somewhere else and be in another road race on a Saturday afternoon and then wake up and be in a road race on Sunday,” said Slovenski. “He’s just such an enthusiastic competitor and the students have been both impressed by what he does and they’ve learned from what he does.”

Often seen taking pictures of the team at practices and meets, LeVasseur is an integral member of the coaching staff and an unfailing source of positivity and inspiration for the team—for his present accomplishments and past struggles.

When LeVasseur was six years old, he and his mother were caught in the Barnum and Bailey Circus Fire, one of the worst fire disasters in United States history.

The circus tent had been waterproofed with a highly flammable mixture of paraffin and gasoline and the whole tent burned to the ground in ten minutes. One-hundred-sixty-eight people perished, including LeVasseur’s mother, and more than 700 were injured.

LeVasseur came out of the fire alive but in critical condition with severe burns on his upper body, head and arms. He lost half of his right index finger and the rest of his fingertips.

While in the hospital, LeVasseur recalled hearing someone say, “I don’t think he’s going to make it,” and he thought to himself, “Yes, I am.”

From that moment on, LeVasseur has continued to demonstrate immense resilience and determination, not allowing physical and emotional trauma to deter him from his passions.

According to the National Senior Games Association, the doctors who treated his burns said he wouldn’t be able to do anything with his hands, as many of his fingers were fused together. After three years of plastic surgery procedures followed by extensive physical therapy, LeVasseur proved his doctors wrong and regained almost complete ability.

As a high school student, LeVasseur played softball, basketball and football, and was captain of his basketball and football teams his senior year.

“Nothing stopped me,” said LeVasseur. “My upper body was badly burned and maybe it drove me a little bit more. I played softball for years and I’d put a glove on my right hand and take it off to throw.”

LeVasseur continued with these sports until he was 30 and looked to running to stay fit when he stopped playing football and basketball. At 35, LeVasseur and his family began training huskies and competing in dog sled races, winning 11 championships in his 29-year career. It wasn’t until he was 41 that he began competing in running and other track and field events, including the triple jump and his favorite, steeplechase. According to LeVasseur, having a variety of interests helps him be comfortable with change, especially as he gets older. 

“I’ve seen people driven by running, but that’s all they did and when they started getting slower, they couldn’t handle it. You have to accept that. You have to do other things. You have to have a well-rounded life,” said LeVasseur. “You accept that you age. We all have that disease and you aren’t going to be able to do the things that you used to at one time although you’d like to. But if you stay fit, you’re going to be able to do them longer and be happier.”

LeVasseur has also dedicated his time to inspiring people to stay fit by serving on the Maine, Connecticut and National Senior Games boards, as well as serving as president of a number of running clubs.

“I got involved because I wanted to make sure the right thing is done for the athlete,” said LeVasseur. “It’s all about what the organization is for, and sometimes people lose sight of that, whether it’s egos or power or whatever. You’ve got to maintain why you’re here: it’s the athlete.”

Although LeVasseur describes himself as competitive, he is also deeply committed to furthering the sport and encouraging other athletes. He is known to help and coach other competitors even during competitions.

“It’s more satisfying to help someone do their best than one’s own accomplishments,” said LeVasseur. “There was a fellow I met from Czech Republic who didn’t speak English and he was going to do the steeplechase for the first time. So before we started, I showed him how to go over the barriers safely, stepping on them and so forth, and he ended up getting third place. I was fifth and he came over, gave me a big hug and what that results in is a friendship.”

A passion to help and share his wealth of knowledge brought LeVasseur to Slovenski’s office in 2004.

“[LeVasseur] understands how to have a great attitude in the face of adversity, and that came through very much in our first conversation and in his first assignments,” said Slovenski. “From his work ethic, his intelligence, his attitude, the way he hustles in any assignment, the way he’s positive about every situation, he has an amazing can-do attitude and he can do it all.”

Yet, as a volunteer coach, LeVasseur feels he has also benefited from and learned a lot through his time here.

“From coaching, I’ve gotten the satisfaction of helping people do better, but also maintaining my fitness,” said LeVasseur. “When I’m working with them, I don’t feel 78 years old; I feel like one of them.”

Fitness is an integral part of LeVasseur’s life and he encourages others to focus on incorporating exercise into their lives as well.

“Since I was 71 or 72 I’ve gone through four cancers and the reason I’m still alive today, I believe, is because I’m fit,” said LeVasseur. “I try to get that across to the athletes here because you don’t have to do the intensity you’re doing, but continue doing something. You’ll feel so much better about your life, your work and everything will be so much easier because you’re fit.”

LeVasseur’s accomplishments have earned him many honors and awards in addition to World Masters Champion titles. LeVasseur ran with the Salt Lake City Olympic torch and the National Senior Games torch, and was inducted into the Maine Running Hall of Fame and the New England 65+ Running Hall of Fame.

“My wife and I were both put into the Maine Senior Games Hall of Fame, which was special,” said LeVasseur. “She’s a swimmer and she took up the triple jump maybe five or six years ago. She’s reigning champion from the Games in Sydney seven years ago and Italy three years ago, so hopefully she can do it again next year.”

In addition to continuing to work with the Bowdoin teams, LeVasseur looks forward to competing in the National Senior Games in Birmingham, Alabama and the World Masters Games in Auckland, New Zealand next year.

After ending last season in the Quarterfinals of the NCAA DIII tournament—the program’s best-ever finish—the women’s volleyball team opened this season 3-1 at the MIT Invitational. With a straight-set win over Colby (0-5 overall) on Tuesday the team stands at 4-1 heading into matchups with Amherst and Williams this weekend.

Although competitors at the MIT Invitational had an extra week to practice as they do not have to comply with NESCAC practice regulations, the Polar Bears still impressed. The team beat Babson (5-2 overall) and Brandeis (3-5 overall) on Friday before taking down Roger Williams (5-4 overall) in a five set nail-biter the next day. Bowdoin, however, fell to tournament champs MIT (8-2 overall) hours later. 

The team faired much better at the event than it did last year when it lost three of its four matches, two of them without winning a set. One of last year’s straight-set losses came against MIT, who the Polar Bears later beat in the Sweet 16 to secure their spot in the Elite Eight.

“We were mentally prepared and physically prepared for the weekend,” said Head Coach Erin Cady. Unfortunately we ran out of gas against MIT, but I definitely think talent-wise we match up against them nicely, and if we see them again it will be a different story.”

“Going into MIT, who you know are competitive, it was exhausting,” said captain Quincy Leech ’17. “But, I’m looking forward to seeing them in the postseason.”

Part of the team’s confidence stems from Cady’s dedication and mentality. Last year’s historic season was Cady’s first with the team and despite only recently arriving in Brunswick, Cady found her bearings at Bowdoin fairly quickly.

“She is the kind of person I feel like was always meant to be at Bowdoin. [The transition] was very seamless,” said Leech. “[Former Head Coach Karen] Corey did amazing things building up the program and that is obviously evident looking at our banners. But it’s just really cool that Coach Cady so effortlessly took that and made it into exactly, I think, what Bowdoin volleyball can become.”

In order to make this season as successful as last, the team will have to overcome the loss of last season’s captains, Christy Jewett ’16 and Hailey Wahl ’16. Not only were Jewett and Wahl instrumental in the team’s on-court success—Jewett had nearly 200 more career kills than any other Polar Bear—but also in their dynamic off the court as well. Since the 2014 team had no seniors, last season was their second as captains and that stability in personnel may have helped the team through the coaching transition.

Despite the losses of Jewett and Wahl, the team is confident and views the roster changes as an opportunity to confuse opponents rather than stifle its own offense.

“[Jewett] was obviously an amazing player for us and an offensive threat,” said Cady. “Looking this year at what we have, spreading our offense will be key for us. Other coaches look at our stats and they don’t know who we’re going to set. I think that’s something we really want to push, having that offensive diversity.”

The Polar Bears will put this new offensive strategy to the test tonight when they face Amherst, the only NESCAC team to defeat them last season, at 8 p.m. in Morrell Gymnasium. The team hopes to fix some of the problems it had against MIT, yet still knows all too well Cady won’t be content with victories this weekend. 

“One of Cady’s biggest strengths is that she’s always thinking 10 steps ahead,” said Leech. “Once we think we’ve mastered something...she’s always trying to improve and I think that’s going to carry us far.”

Coming off a 21-1 campaign and a NESCAC title last year, the National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA) ranked Bowdoin No. 2 in its Division III preseason poll. NESCAC rival and defending national champion Middlebury took the No. 1 spot, setting the two teams up for another year of close competition in both the NESCAC and national arenas.

Bowdoin opened its season on Wednesday with a 3-1 win over the University of New England.

Going into the opening match, captain Kimmy Ganong’s ’17 expectations for the team were high.

“[We want to] definitely come out firing, get a win right away, start our season off on the right foot and to play to every last whistle and for all 70 minutes,” said Ganong.

The team did just that as first year Kara Finnerty closed out the match in the 68th minute with the Polar Bears’ third goal. The decisive win starts off what is sure to be another strong, competitive season for the program.

“[The team is] coming off a terrific season and the returners will have learned a lot from what they achieved, and that’s what we’re taking from the season,” Head Coach Nicky Pearson said. “We don’t look back and we don’t look too far forward. The level that they played at will just give them confidence, and that I think is what will drive them as individuals this year.”

However, falling short of a title in the National Championship Final for two consecutive years remains a motivating force in the minds of the upperclassmen.

“It still hurts thinking about the national championship, not only last year but the year before that too,” said Ganong. “What’s special about the seniors is that we won the national championship our freshman year so we know what it takes. We’ve been there, we’ve done it, and we’re determined to repeat that—to go all the way and come home with a championship.”

As they start their campaign, Pearson and the team are honing in on maintaining a strong defense and converting on scoring opportunities.

“The game is won and lost in the circles,” said Pearson. “So our focus is to be solid defensively and really limit the scoring opportunities our opponents have in our defensive circle and then in our offensive circle focusing on our preparation and execution of the opportunities we have to score.”

The team faces a number of challenges this season, one of the largest being adapting to a high degree of turnover both on the team and coaching staff.

In addition to a substantial class of eight first years, the program welcomes Kelly McManus as the new assistant coach. After graduating from Bates in 2012, McManus was an assistant coach at MIT for the last four seasons.

“McManus is a very accomplished coach,” said Pearson. “Her priority is to coach defense and straight away she took the time to get to know those players and to coach them in preseason; her transition into our team has been seamless.”In addition, last year’s senior class left some large shoes to fill, such as Kim Kahnweiler ’16 who was recently named an NCAA Woman of the Year Top 30 nominee.

Kahnweiler isn’t the first member of the Bowdoin Field Hockey program to receive this honor. A testament to the program Pearson has built over the last 21 years, Michaela Calnan ’11 and Elena Crosley ’13 were also NESCAC nominees for NCAA Woman of the Year. This honor recognizes not only athletic and academic achievement, but service and leadership during nominees’ collegiate careers.

According to Pearson, the leadership of the team’s senior class has been instrumental in this season’s transition.

“There have been a lot of new faces in the program, but the speed with which the team has come together is impressive,” said Pearson. “I give them a lot of credit, particularly to our captains and our seniors. This whole senior class has presented a united front to the team about what we stand for, what the expectations are and what an honor it is to wear the jersey.”

Even with the loss of 5 seniors and a few underclassmen, the team has an untouched midfield line and a strong core of versatile returners, giving them a solid foundation to build off of this season.

“[Pearson] always keeps in mind the future and sets the players up to really know how to play multiple positions and be ready to go in at any point,” said Ganong. “She says she’ll always play the best player that’s performing for the team at that moment, so whether you’re a senior or a first year you could be called upon at any moment and you’re expected to really play your best and win for the team.”

The team had a chance to test these changes in team strategy and dynamic, as well as identify strengths and weaknesses going forward, in scrimmages against NESCAC competitors Tufts and Bates before the season opener.

“Our spacing, passing the ball and supporting the ball carrier were big priorities for us and I thought we did well in regard to that,” said Pearson. “We created some good opportunities but I think we were disappointed considering the amount of possession we had that we didn’t convert that into more goals. So it’s going to be a focus for us and has been over the last couple of days.”

The team faces Amherst in its NESCAC opener Saturday at 11 a.m. at home.

The men’s tennis team closed out the season with a close-fought loss to Tufts as it heads into the NESCAC playoffs this weekend. The Polar Bears enter the tournament as the second seed, which earns them a first-round bye as they wait to play the winner of the third-seeded Williams and sixth-seeded Amherst match.

While the Polar Bears started off leading 2-1 after the doubles matches, they ultimately fell to the Jumbos 5-4, with the final match decided by a two-point margin.

“We competed to the best of our ability and were as focused as possible given the conditions. It’s hard to be proud of any loss, but I think it’s really healthy to encounter adversity,” said captain Luke Trinka ’16. “This is a match that we walk away from not feeling like there are a bunch of things we could’ve done to win the match, but like we did everything we possibly could that was in our control to try and achieve the best possible result, and it just didn’t go our way.”

While ending the season with one of the only two losses for the program this spring is disappointing, the team looks to use this loss as motivation to work hard and stay focused going into the postseason this weekend.

“If we needed any further validation that no team is good enough to simply show up and win, that’s it,” said captain Chase Savage ’16. “It’s probably the best dose of reality from the standpoint of just knowing that we have to bring it every single match, both in terms of energy and also finding a way to play our best.”

Tufts, ranked fifth in the NESCAC and 13th nationally, is only one of the formidable opponents in the NESCAC tournament this weekend. All six competing teams are ranked in the top 15 nationally. While decisive 8-1 and 9-0 victories against Williams and Amherst respectively during the regular season bode well for the team’s success, the players refuse to take their position for granted.

“It’s really easy to look at box scores and say we’re going to walk in and waltz our way through Saturday. We’re not going to,” said Savage. “It’s going to be a grind. If we play Williams, I guarantee they’re going to come at us and come at us hard. If it’s Amherst, they have to win NESCACs in order to make NCAAs this year, so all their guys are going to come out and swing from the hip. So we can’t by any stretch look past Saturday.”

This year, the team enters the tournament as the second seed, matching the highest seeding in program history, and closes out the season with a record of 14-2, the strongest regular season record in recent team history. Head Coach Conor Smith noted that one critical difference with this year’s team is much stronger doubles play.

“With previous teams, we had been playing pretty consistent top-10, maybe even top-five, singles, but you couldn’t say that about our doubles,” said Smith. “If we evaluated our fall results, we had a good fall singles-wise, but we really didn’t doubles-wise. We still had a long way to go, and the guys did a great job of committing themselves in the off season to improving that and getting prepared for the season.”

From the off season to playoffs, hard work and commitment have enabled the players to continue improving in all aspects of their play and progress to the dominant force they are today.

“This team’s work ethic is pretty unparalleled to any former Bowdoin tennis team that I’ve been on,” said Trinka. “It’s not just the hours that the guys spend on the court or that people spend in the gym. There’s a lot of mental preparation that goes into the sport as well, and that has been one of the major reasons why we’ve done so well so far.”Bowdoin plays its first match at 4:30 p.m. tomorrow at Bates.

Renowned softball coach Sue Enquist passed on advice from 26 years of coaching at both the collegiate and Olympic levels to Bowdoin athletes and coaches in her talk, “Competitive Character Blueprints: Building Sustainable and Relevant Leadership Systems,” at Kresge Auditorium on Tuesday.

 Before starting her coaching career, Enquist played softball for UCLA, helping the program reach its first national championship. Her career batting average of .401 was a program record that remained untouched for 24 years. Enquist went on to have an incredible career as head coach of the UCLA softball program. The left the team with a a combined 11 national championships as a player and coach. Enquist also won a gold medal as the coach of the USA softball team in the 1996 Olympic games, the first time softball was included in the Olympics.

During Enquist’s years as head coach of the UCLA program, her teams won 83% of their games. Yet, despite all of the great teams that she coached, Enquist noted that she had seen her teams fail many times.

“[We were] ranked number one in the country, [had] nine returners, and we got knocked out in the second round [of the World Series],” said Enquist.

“Every year I coached, every single team went to the World Series, and we’re really proud of that consistency. But what about the years where we were supposed to win the World Series and didn’t get past the first round?”

She explained the reasons behind this team’s failures.

“When entitlement starts to flourish in a team, when people think we’re supposed to win today, that’s when you’re in trouble. That’s when the game comes up, and it bites you in the butt,” said Enquist. “You say you never saw it coming—yes, you saw it coming. You looked in the other dugout and said game over.”

These points particularly stuck out to men’s tennis captain Chase Savage ‘16, as his team continues to face the pressures of one of its strongest seasons in recent program history.

“Hearing from an 11-time national champion that there were teams who she thought underperformed but were still in the top four in the country I think shows a lot and says a lot about the power of having a complete backing from every member of your team,” said Savage. “You can have all the accolades in the world, and you can have all the talent, but if you go out there and you don’t respect your opponent, your opponent can still beat you that day.” 

“You should never expect your opponent to give you anything,” he continued. “I think as a team, we’re trying to capture that this year by emphasizing that every day in practice, we have to earn it because every single match we play, we’re going to have to earn it as well.”

Having retired in 2006, Enquist’s talk also focused on how the key leadership characteristics built through athletics translate to life outside of the collegiate athletic sphere. From the relationship with excellence that comes from playing at an elite college to harnessing the positive attributes of competition, Enquist described how she’s seen and experienced the benefits of these traits.

“One year we were in the finals of the World Series. My catcher goes down, the backup catcher goes down, and the third catcher goes down. We’re ranked number one in the country, and I have a backup right fielder as the starting catcher. She hasn’t had a catcher’s glove on in six years. But this is what I know about sports—you have mastered fundamentals that allow you to be adjusted that you actually can perform very well when we tweak your role,” said Enquist.

According to Enquist, this ability to master fundamentals and adjust well translates to the business world. “So when you get that first job and they say ‘Hey you’re a director, but we need a vice president,’ the first thing you’re going to think is ‘I’m not sure I’m worthy,’ ‘I’m not sure I’m capable.’ When in doubt, raise your hand and say ‘I can do that.’ Figure it out later, because your general skill set is going to allow you to do so many things outside of that specific job.”

As a senior, Savage reflected on how his athletic experience sets himself up to be very comfortable with success and failure in any aspect of his life.

“In my four years here, athletics has been a place where I’ve failed, but it’s a place that allowed me to get back up. The win or the loss really forces you to confront failure on a daily basis, and it forces you to pick yourself up,” he said.

“If you don’t learn how to pick yourself up, and it’s not just sports, if you don’t find the way to get over adversity, you’re really going to struggle.” He continued, “Every person in this world, no matter how smart, no matter how athletic, no matter how talented, has a day or a moment or many moments when they’re simply not as good as somebody else.”

With the end of the fall season came what Seamus Power ‘16 thought was the end of his football career. However, an invitation to the Toronto Regional Canadian Football League Combine changed his plans.

“I finished football this fall and thought I was done,” said Power. “Then I got the email with the invite and was like ‘This is a cool opportunity. It’d be cool to just go and participate for one day.’”

The all-day event held on March 10 ended up opening up many more options for continuing to play after Bowdoin. 

“The interesting thing from being at the combine was that I technically have a fifth year of eligibility in Canada,” said Power. “A lot of coaches came up and talked to me and were trying to get me to come back and play one year in Canada and do a one-year master’s. So I have one more year of college football, in theory, if I wanted to go back to Canada.”

The Canadian Football League (CFL) holds three regional combines each March in order to determine the athlete pool for the May 10 draft. Over the course of the day, the athletes’ strength, speed and agility are measured through six tests: the bench press, the vertical jump, the broad jump, the three-cone drill, the shuttle run and the 40-yard dash.

Forty-five athletes representing colleges and teams from all over Canada and the US were invited to the combine, where they broke into position groups as they went through the tests.“It was just me and 11 other wide receivers, and everyone was from different schools, said Powers. “So my favorite part was just talking about your football experience for the last four years and meeting different people who’ve played football in western Canada.” 

While a strong wide receiver for the Bowdoin program, Power hasn’t been in the position for long. He shifted from quarterback to wide receiver after a shoulder injury rendered him unable to throw. However, he attributes some of his biggest strengths at wide receiver to this change.

 “I think it was a natural transition to wide receiver because it was just the other side of the equation,” said Power. “Normally, I was throwing to the wide receiver, so I already had a good concept of how the offense works and how the routes work. My strength as a wide receiver is I understand the spacing on the field. I’m not the fastest guy, I don’t have the best hands, but I think I run pretty good routes, and I understand what we’re trying to do as an offense.”

While playing football at Bowdoin, Power also joined the indoor and outdoor track teams for the winter and spring seasons. The in-season training for indoor track this winter particularly helped Power focus on his speed and agility going into the combine. Similar to the NFL Combines, the 40-yard dash is usually the most prestigious and important test of the day, as it tests athletes’ speed and ability to explode from a stationary start.

While the combines are run quite similarly, the CFL differs from the NFL in a number of key ways. Unlike the NFL, the CFL has mandated quotas that state that the 44-man roster of each team must include 20 Canadian citizens. The game itself also differs in the size of the field and the number of downs, as Canadian football is only played with three downs. These changes in the game can make the transition from American football to Canadian football quite difficult, yet that doesn’t hinder the frequent crossover between the two leagues as the CFL is a common gateway into the NFL.

The Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Club is branching out and becoming more competitive. It sent two senior members to the ICON Sports competition last weekend, one of the largest Jiu-Jitsu tournaments in Maine. Phil Koch ’15 and Dan Navarro ’16 represented the club in the blue belt division and placed second and fourth respectively, a strong outing especially considering their limited competition experience.

"[Phil] and I were not sure how we were going to do going into it because we were fighting at blue belt, which is a pretty difficult division and neither of us had done that before," said Navarro. "The only people we fight are other Bowdoin students, so it was a little hard to judge how we were going to compete against these men, a lot of whom are professional MMA fighters or amateur boxers or whatever, coming from all sorts of martial arts experiences, and we did really well."

Jiu-Jitsu is a submission-based martial art that focuses on using your opponent's weight to your advantage and pushing them past their comfort levels. While the matches start standing up, most of the fighting is done on the ground as the fighters use chokes, holds and locks to make their opponent so uncomfortable they tap out or are "submitted." Gaining this advantage over your opponent is more about leverage and tactical maneuvers than brute strength.

"Part of what I love about the sport is that it teaches you to use your opponent's weight against them, so one of the points of it is that you can beat someone who is bigger and stronger than you are," said Elizabeth Miller ’18. "Strength is important in this sport, but it's not necessary per se. So it's just nice to know the ways you can handle yourself and have that awareness so that if someone comes up to me in the street, especially with everything that's been going on this year, I could hold my own."

Miller first started Jiu-Jitsu to learn some basic self-defense moves, which is a common motivation for newcomers as the sport's technique focuses on defending yourself from a larger attacker. However, Jiu-Jitsu can feel odd and unnatural at first, especially for those without any wrestling or martial arts background.

 "It was really scary at first and I felt very awkward, but as you learn you just get more comfortable with it and more comfortable with being uncomfortable," said Miller. "Everyone is so supportive and so nice and they're just there to help you. I love it, I'm so glad I did it."

Perhaps the biggest challenge facing the club is keeping new members. While the club has grown substantially since it was first founded with two members in 2011, for many newcomers the sport can be daunting and the process of improvement long and demanding.

"When you come into Jiu-Jitsu, it doesn't matter how tough you are, it doesn't matter how big you are, the first day you hit the mat someone's going to submit you and you're going to feel like you're in danger of getting hurt and that's a pretty humbling experience," said Navarro.

"Then to get good at the sport, you really have to drill it and like any other sport, you have to do some boring things in practice and the fun stuff comes after," said Navarro. "My biggest recommendation would be if you're really interested, come to two or three practices to try it out before you really give up, because the people who do that have all stuck with it."

The club practices three days a week in the Sargent Dance Studio on the third floor of Smith Union and welcomes newcomers of all experience levels to contact Navarro if they're interested.

The men’s basketball team fell 76-83 to second seed Amherst last Saturday in the first round of the NESCAC Tournament. It is unlikely that the Polar Bears recieve a bid to the NCAA tournament.

After falling behind in the first 10 minutes, the Polar Bears rallied to tie the game before the end of the first half, and kept the score close until the end. However, they were ultimately unable to come back after Amherst scored some key three-pointers in the last few minutes.

“We still stayed right with [Amherst], competed with them and played a great game, so I was very happy with how we battled, our performance and the way we came out and played,” said Head Coach Tim Gilbride. “Maybe just one play here or there could’ve made the difference in the game, but unfortunately we didn’t end up getting that one play.”

As predicted by the team last week, rebounding was key in keeping the game close. The Polar Bears had a 42-34 edge over Amherst in rebounds, led by senior Matt Palecki, who had nine rebounds on the day. Senior Lucas Hausman led the team in scoring with 29 points in his final game as a Polar Bear. He averaged 25.3 points per game this season, setting a new school record.

With such strong performances, the team is proud of how they played against Amherst, who is not only seeded second in the NESCAC but ranked first in the Division III Northeast region. The Purple & White have put together a consistently strong program as they won the NESCAC Title for three consecutive years before Wesleyan put a stop to their streak in last year’s championship match.

“That’s how you want to finish a season, playing your best and seeing where that takes you and how far it can take you, and it took us to a real close game with one of the better teams in the country,” said Gilbride. “I think everybody feels good about that. But our guys are such good competitors, especially our senior group, that when you’re that close, you want to win the game.”

While the loss is disappointing, the team was able to finish their season with a winning record of 12-11. Much of the team’s success in the back half of the season came from players rising to meet the demands of the team, which continued in the quarterfinal matchup.

“Our underclassmen really stepped up, especially the freshman class. They showed a lot of grit and determination when it came to the Amherst game,” said Blake Gordon ‘18. “Our senior captain [Jake Donnelly] was injured for the Amherst game so a first year [Tim Ahn] started who played tremendously well during the game, and I think that will translate to next year.”

With this season’s strong finish, the underclassmen on the team will carry a lot of experience and confidence into next year. The current first years are expected to continue their critical role on the team next season, especially after Jack Simonds ’19 ended up as the team’s second leading scorer this season. However, the program will also have to make up for the loss of the three graduating seniors.

“Lucas Hausman, Matt Palecki and Jake Donnelly have really done a good job of bringing this whole group together,” said Gilbride. “Our team’s really shown a lot of progress, especially right here at the end of the season in terms of playing very well together, and that really happens and can only happen if you get great leadership and our three senior captains have been great with that.”

The senior class has provided the team with not only strong leadership off the court, but also immense skill and talent on the court. All three seniors were consistent starters for the team both this season and last season. Palecki led the team this season in rebounds per game with 6.9, while Donnelly led in assists per game with 3.4. After being named NESCAC Player of the Year last year, Hausman continued his strong trajectory and surpassed the 1,000 career points milestone this season, finishing his Bowdoin career with 1,482 points, which ranks seventh in school history.

“In Lucas, we’re losing one of the best scorers in the history of Bowdoin College basketball, so that won’t be easy to replace,” said Gilbride. “We’ll miss all three, but I think we have a real nice nucleus to build with, a nice collection of guys that will be returning and hopefully some other new players to add to the mix, so we’re really looking forward to next year.”

“Ending this season the way that we did, with three big wins at home and then going to Amherst and fighting them close the whole game, I think that transitions into next year knowing that we can compete with any team in the NESCAC,” said Gordon. “We have the right players, we have the right attitude, we just need to show that we can prove that throughout the whole season.”

Wins against Wesleyan (18-6 overall, 5-5 NESCAC) and Connecticut College (12-12 overall, 3-7 NESCAC) last weekend narrowly propelled the men’s basketball team (12-10 overall, 4-6 NESCAC) into the postseason. The Camels and Polar Bears were both 3-6 going into the regular season finale, which made the game win-or-go-home for both teams. The victory gave Bowdoin the seventh seed, and the team will face second seed Amherst (20-4 overall, 8-2 NESCAC) in their NESCAC quarterfinal matchup at 4 p.m. on Saturday.

The Polar Bears came into last weekend with a conference record of 2-6, feeling the pressures of not making the NESCAC Tournament for what would’ve been the first time in 15 years. Yet when it counted most, the team was able to come together and hopefully turn their season around.

“We’ve raised our level of intensity on the defensive end so that we have become a pretty good, solid, defensive team, which has helped us in winning the last three games leading into the tournament,” said Head Coach Tim Gilbride. “And our understanding and concentration on the offensive end in trying to get good shots and shots for our best shooters has developed too. Those two things have got us to the point where now we are playing, I believe, our best basketball at the right time of the year.”

The team’s defensive strength will be tested this weekend by Amherst’s staunch offense. Armed with many strong shooters and tall players, Amherst ranks second in the league in scoring offense after averaging 82.3 points per game this season.

“With [Amherst], we will have to defend a lot of shooters,” said Gilbride. “They have a lot of guys that can shoot the ball well, they have good size, their big guys shoot it well, as well as their guards, so that’ll be a main focus for us during the week.”

Keeping the ball out of Amherst’s hands will go a long way in keeping Bowdoin in the match this weekend.

“Our rebounding is going to be big because they have a 6’9”-6’10”, really athletic center and a couple other big guys that come off the bench so as they are a very good offensive team,” said captain Matt Palecki ‘16. “It’ll be key for us to make sure that we only limit them to one shot every time they get down the floor and hopefully if we’re playing good defense that’s a difficult shot or a contested shot. Obviously that’ll be a difficult task, but hopefully if we can do that, we can end up with a good result.”

The team had a strong showing against the Lord Jeffs during the regular season, going up by 17 points in the first few minutes only to lose after a strong second half by Amherst. While the result was not ideal, Gilbride remains positive about their first half and what the team can accomplish after their progress this season.

“We showed that we can match up with them and do some things if we play at our best, and we’re really looking forward to it,” said Gilbride.

This year’s squad features 5 upperclassmen, 5 sophomores and 5 first years. With such a young team, Gilbride expected some transition time for the team to come together, yet attributes the program’s success and growth throughout this process to the strong senior leadership on the team and many players rising to the occasion when asked of them.

In the last week of the regular season, forward Jack Simonds ’19 earned a NESCAC Player of the Week honor as he helped drive the Polar Bear’s offense, averaging 23.7 points and 7.7 rebounds per game on the week.

“[Simonds] is a very talented player. He’s got a couple big things going for himself; he’s 6’5”-6’6”, so he can score some easy baskets around the basket depending on who’s covering him, but he also shoots the ball very well,” said Gilbride. “What has developed is he’s really getting a good feel for when are opportunities to score. There were good situations for him to score during this week, our team got him the ball in those situations and he came through.”All of the first years have had an immediate impact this season and been a large part of the team’s ability to turn the tide of their season.

“Our whole freshman class is a testament to Coach Gilbride and Coach Faucher’s recruiting; they’ve been phenomenal for us in some big spots,” said Palecki. “As a group, there’s a lot of potential for them, not even just at the end of this year but for the next three years to come.”

The curling team will travel to Chaska, MN this March to compete at the USA Curling College Championships for the first time since the team won the Division IV title in 2011. While only in the program’s sixth year, the Polar Bears have had a lot of success this season. They’re currently ranked third overall and first in their region.

“We’ve been really happy with the way this year has been going so far,” said Lauren Bostick ’16.  “Since it’s winding down, we just have to keep that momentum going until Nationals, and then, even though we’re graduating and we don’t have much stake in what happens afterwards, of course we hope that the team will continue and grow.”

Looking forward, Silas Domy ’16 is both positive and cautious about the team’s prospects at Nationals. 

“[We’re] sort of up in the air. We’ve both won and lost against most other teams we’ve played,” said Domy. “Yet I don’t think we’ve ever had four of our five best players on the same team in a competition this year. 

Since only four people participate in each game, teams with stronger rosters won’t have their strongest lineup compete in every game or every tournament. This year’s team has a strong core of 10 players, representing all class years and experience levels, forming the program’s deepest squad in recent years.

“We have a very cohesive team,” said Domy. “Without that, we probably wouldn’t have a team because I think Hamilton is the only other similarly sized school that usually has a team in the entire country.”

With more committed players this season, the team has been more aggressive in its scheduling, traveling all the way to Rochester, NY and Philadelphia, PA for tournaments, which are called bonspiels. The team co-hosted the 6th Annual Crash ‘Spiel with the University of Maine on January 24, featuring eight teams from seven colleges. The team will also be hosting a one-day bonspiel this weekend in Cape Cod, which will feature eight teams from Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York.

Outside of some assistance from adults at the curling club in Belfast, ME, the team is entirely student run. Domy and Bostick have organized and led the team since their sophomore year, managing everything from scheduling, to coaching new players, to driving the team to practices and bonspiels. While challenging, the seniors note their experience as one of the program’s key strengths.

“The fact that we had two years to figure things out makes the program stronger,” said Bostick. “Of course it would be better if we had upperclassmen to guide us along the way, but since we’ve been in charge, there hasn’t been that change in leadership where things would have to start over. The development has been slow, but I think it’s really rewarding to see it come to fruition this year. Now we know what to do, and we just have to do it.”

Curling at its most fundamental level involves two teams sliding large stones across a sheet of ice, competing to have the stone that’s closest to the center of the target that’s painted on the ice. The four players on each team rotate through the roles of throwing the stone, using a broom to control the speed and direction of the stone and directing the other team members. A standard game consists of eight ends, which are sections of the game similar to innings in baseball. During an end, each team throws eight stones, and the team with the stone closest to the center of the target wins points for that end. The games are fairly low scoring. Typically neither team will have more than ten points at the end of competition.

The team holds weekly practices in Sidney J. Watson Arena, although the hockey rink isn’t the most suitable environment for curling training, as the sport takes place on differently textured ice. However, these casual practices serve as a great way for new people to try out the sport and get introduced to the team.

“You don’t have to be particularly strong or fast. You don’t need to have won the genetic lottery to be good at this,” said Bostick. “It’s just something you commit to, and you learn the technique and understand the strategy, and it’s something you can play for a really long time against all age levels.

With less than four weeks until the National Championships, the men’s and women’s squash teams are preparing for the final stretch of their season. Both teams have been battling diminished lineups in the past few matches. The men’s team is currently ranked 21st nationally with a record of 4-9, and the women’s team is ranked 17th with a record of 7-6.

Last weekend, both teams competed again Brown and lost their fifth shutout of the season. According to Tomas Fortson, who is the head coach for both teams, the tough losses show that the biggest challenge facing both teams is bringing a healthy and complete nine-person roster into each match. 

“We’re meeting our challenges well. We have some significant ones, especially in terms of numbers, expected number of players originally and the ones who we’re actually playing with right now,” Fortson said.

“The men’s team is dealing with injuries and illnesses, and the women’s team has to deal with players who were supposed to be on the team but quit. So the same end result, which is not being able to have the expected complete roster, comes from different reasons,” Fortson added.

Injuries and illnesses reduced the men’s roster of 13 down to eight against Brown, forced the Polar Bears to forfeit their ninth match. In addition to losing key players, the absences in the roster force healthy players to move up the team’s ladder and compete against higher ranked opponents. 

“Obviously [the injuries] make it harder because you’re not playing your strongest players where they should be,” said men’s captain Christian Dorff ‘17. “It just means that everyone’s going to have to play a bit harder and play a tougher opponent.”

In the face of formidable competition and thin lineups, Fortson notes that his teams have been  growing in overcoming the obstacles they face and individuals have been improving as well.

“Improving your skills is the big focus of our program beyond competing and trying to win as many matches and represent Bowdoin well,” said Fortson. “In the end, [squash is] a sport that allows players to improve their skills significantly, and that’s the main focus for us. So whether we have 10 players or 15 players, each individual player is in a position to continue to develop [his or her] skills, so we keep the focus on that, and we’ve been doing well with it fortunately.”

This focus on continuous improvement is a cornerstone of Fortson’s program. According to some of the players, this focus sets the Polar Bears apart from many other collegiate teams.

“A lot of players at the other schools will start out as really strong players and remain really strong players but maybe not improve as much,” said women’s captain Torey Lee ’15. “At Bowdoin, we take a lot of people who haven’t played much before as well and people who’ve not specialized in squash and played a bunch of different sports in high school, and then the expectation is that you’ll really improve and grow in your four years at Bowdoin.”

Despite many setbacks, both teams have used the season’s obstacles as motivation, leading to strong showings in January against Wesleyan and Hamilton.

“For us, the season is kind of just beginning because we’re now playing a lot of teams that ranking-wise are similar to us,” said men’s captain Alex Reisley ’16.

Both teams will face Connecticut College tonight at 7 p.m. in the Lubin Squash Center before heading to Colby on Saturday. With Colby ranked 20th nationally for both the men and women, this weekend should be filled with competitive play and the opportunity for either team to move up in the rankings before Nationals, where they expect to play more similarly competitive teams.

“The way postseason is done in squash is you’re grouped with the teams right around your ranking, so it’s a very exciting way to finish for all the teams when they go to Nationals,” said Fortson. “You know you’re going to be playing all of your matches with like rivals versus going up against some top seed team that you have no chance of ever beating. So competitively, we want to be our best. We want to peak at Nationals.”

In the final weeks of the season, Fortson’s goals are clear with both squads working towards putting forward their strongest performances at Nationals in a few weeks.

“Right now with the men’s team, our goal is to try to be healthier so that we can have a full roster and for the women’s team, to stay healthy with the barely enough numbers that we have and have everyone continue to grow,” said Fortson. “Both teams are in a position to, if they continue to get a little better and compete well, have some significant results at Nationals.”

It may not have the nationwide cachet of Red Sox-Yankees or Michigan-Ohio State, but for Bowdoin students, it’s just as momentous a rivalry. For the 205th and 206th time, Bowdoin men’s ice hockey will take on Colby, their greatest foe, in this weekend’s two-game series. The Polar Bears will travel to Colby Friday night before returning to Sidney J. Watson Arena to face the Mules on Saturday at 7 p.m.

“The size of our school is small, but the enthusiasm, the interest, the tradition, how it’s grown, the wonderful stories, all those things—this ranks up with as good a rivalry and as good a tradition as there is in the country,” said Head Coach Terry Meagher. “These things evolve. Who knows how or why, but they evolve.

For decades, the Bowdoin-Colby rivalry has spurred fanaticism and excitement across campus as it’s become deeply ingrained in the College’s culture. Even with all the fans that come out for the hockey game, ultimately it’s the players on the ice who maintain the tradition’s integrity.

“The test of a real tradition is the quality of individuals, how they respect the tradition, the game, what it means to them, and I think you could flip jerseys and not even lose a beat in the quality of people that they have,” said Meagher. “You could flip the jerseys and have the same kind of character in each locker room.”

While each face-off between the Polar Bears and Mules has its own unique moments, the players of both sides consistently bring determination, passion and excitement to the ice.

“There’s nothing better than playing against Colby in front of your own fans, and definitely, it’s a lot of fun to battle it out on the ice,” said Chris Fenwick ’16. “The games are always really close. It doesn’t really matter what the standings are going into this game—it’s a hockey game, and anybody can win it.”

This year, the Polar Bears have had a slow start to the season as they came out of their first four games with a record of 0-3-1. With a young team and some early injuries, Meagher was neither surprised nor deterred by their early season record.

“We would like to certainly have had a couple more wins, but our opposition is talented,” said Meagher. “What’s encouraging is you can see the progress on a daily basis. It’s moving in a good direction, but I’m not surprised that we are going through some growing pains right now.”

The Polar Bears began to turn the tide of their season last Sunday, as they claimed their first victory, winning 5-0 against the UMass Boston.

“This was a turning point for us going forward, especially coming into Bowdoin-Colby weekend,” said Fenwick. “Hopefully the win will provide some momentum and carry us forward.”

“The goaltending was a huge key on Sunday,” said Meagher. “We got timely saves and timely goals, and I know we got great play out of our goaltender, Peter Cronin ‘18, on Sunday, and that was a huge lift. That can really inspire a team, and it makes it easier for people to break through and not be tentative.”

Goaltending will continue to be a deciding factor in the games this weekend as the Polar Bears face Colby goaltender Emerson Verrier, who was named NESCAC Player of the Week last week. All four goaltenders on Bowdoin’s roster—none of whom are seniors—have seen playing time this season, so it’s unclear who will be between the pipes for the Polar Bears on Saturday. However, Cronin has had the most minutes and just came off of the shutout win last Sunday.

The rest of the team is similarly young, including a front line that graduated six seniors this past spring. Yet the underclassmen have been proving their capability; all eight goals scored at the Bowdoin-Colby Classic this past weekend were by first years and sophomores.

“There’s no guarantee you’re going to be successful, but if you have a certain amount of skill with will, and then you add experience, we’re going to be a tough opponent,” said Meagher. “I know we have the skill, I think we have the will, it’s just we’ve got to add the experience to that recipe, and then I think we’re going to be a tough opponent in the league.”

Yet the team’s youth doesn’t change many of the fundamental approaches to building a new team that Meagher’s developed over his 33 seasons at Bowdoin.

“There are time-tested models that we follow...but within that, as you’re building the foundation and going to the next step, not every house you build is the same,” said Meagher. “You’re building a brand-new house; you’ve got to get the foundation set, you’ve got to get the infrastructure set, and then the finished product probably doesn’t look like the last house you built.”

The volleyball team extended its winning streak to 10 games last weekend with a sweep of Trinity and Wesleyan. Undefeated in the NESCAC, the squad has dominated throughout its matches, losing only two sets out of the last 32.

A number of individual achievements have accompanied the team’s continued success. Two weeks ago, captain Christy Jewett ’16 was named the NESCAC Volleyball Player of the Week as she achieved 1,161 career kills, the second highest number in Bowdoin history. Jewett saw the conference accolade as more of a team accomplishment than an individual one.

“Obviously it feels great to be honored, but one thing that I’ve really become aware of is that nobody ever wins Player of the Week without a really strong team backing her,” said Jewett.

Jewett is on pace to break the six-year-old Bowdoin career record of 1,227 kills held by Gillian Page ‘10 by the end of the season. Last year, Jewett set the single-season school records for most kills and attacks with 445 and 1158, respectively.

Katie Doherty ’17 also entered the record book this season, as she became the sixth player in Bowdoin history to reach 1,000 career digs.

“If our team weren’t as strong as it is, I don’t think that would’ve been possible to accomplish,” said Doherty.

With a full season of Bowdoin volleyball left, Doherty has plenty of opportunities to move up through the all-time rankings, yet the statistics are not what keep her motivated. For Doherty, the effect her accomplishments had on the rest of the team impacted her more than the number itself.

“[Reaching 1,000 digs] was one of the most amazing moments of my life, simply because of the atmosphere and how amazing my team is,” said Doherty. “I was just so inspired by how excited everyone else was. It was amazing not because I valued it but because of how much everyone else valued it.”

The team has accomplished a lot already, but its season is far from over. The volleyball program heads into a high stakes Homecoming Weekend facing fellow NESCAC competitors Amherst and Williams.

“Everyone’s really excited for this weekend,” said Doherty. “This is the moment that will really define us as a team. We’ll see if we can cement our first place in the NESCAC.”

With this excitement comes extra focus and determination as the program prepares for its biggest challenge and the largest threat to its streak so far.

“It’s really confidence boosting to have a streak like that but we’re going to be really challenged this weekend,” said Jewett. “Our winning streak is a good measure of success but this weekend will be an even better measure of what we can do.”

Williams and Amherst are ranked number two and three respectively in the NESCAC, and the team has to take down Williams on Saturday at 2 p.m. in order to host the NESCAC tournament at the end of the season—an advantage keenly sought after by the team.

“We emphasize how we’re in the driver’s seat right now,” said Head Coach Erin Cady, “We have the power to control our own destiny and look at it like it’s a power or an opportunity instead of pressure to perform.”

While this weekend may be daunting to some, the squad is eager to rise to the challenge.“The easy part will be the team [being] mentally motivated and ready and physically motivated to go out and perform against Williams,” said Cady. “I definitely can tell you our players are ready and motivated for that match.”

The team remains focused on continuous improvement and leaning into the discomfort of learning new skills.

“Something that [Cady] does really well that’s helped our team is to keep us uncomfortable in practice by challenging us to do new things every time we’ve successfully done something,” said Doherty. “That just allows us to keep raising our play no matter who we’re playing.”

“We’re consistently working,” said Jewett. “Once we fix something, [Cady] will scout us like she will scout a different team. We’ve been working on finding ways that they would exploit us so that we can fix it before they have a chance to find those.”

Luckily the team hasn’t had any serious injuries and with everyone ready and available to do their best, the team continues on their fast track to the NESCAC tournament with high expectations for their performance.

The volleyball team has hit its stride, having won its last five matches against formidable opponents. After a difficult weekend at the MIT Invitational, the squad came back for a strong win at Middlebury. Having never won in Middlebury’s gym, this game marked a turning of the tide for the team.

“It’s been a long time coming,” said captain Christy Jewett ’16. “I think what defined us was taking care of the things we could control and setting our minds on beating Middlebury for the first time there.”

As with any early-season team, and especially one with a new head coach, Bowdoin took some time to settle into changes and new lineups and achieve the strong showings in recent weeks.

“I think some of the sacrifices that we made in the first weekend in order to figure out our team dynamics paid off,” said captain Hailey Wahl ’16. “In these past two weekends we’ve been able to apply a lot of what we learned from the first weekend and make the changes that we needed to make and be flexible and be able to figure out our opposition’s strengths and change our game plan in order to better defend against the opposing team.”

The team beat Middlebury 3-1, losing a close third match 23-25 but bringing it back in the fourth match for a decisive 25-18 win. The Polar Bears proceeded to sweep their next four matches against Hamilton, Worcester State, Bates and Colby, giving them a record of 7-3 and leaving them undefeated in the NESCAC. Jewett consistently led the team in kills throughout the four matches, totaling 15 against Bates, with first year Lisa Sheldon stepping up to contribute, leading the team with 22 digs against Hamilton.

The team’s depth is a primary strength this year, as demonstrated by Sheldon’s seamless introduction into the lineup in the past few games.

“I’d say this is the deepest team we’ve had in terms of talent,” said Assistant Coach Kristin Hanczor. “Everyone is very close in their ability and it allows us to compete against each other really intensely, which makes games more fun and less stressful because we already know in our gym we’re competing at a high level.”

With a strong base of returning players, the team is able to look into more complicated strategies. Differently from previous years, Head Coach Erin Cady has adapted the program’s game plan to focus on adjusting their tactics to each opponent.

“Being very smart volleyball players is becoming more of a focus of our program this year with so many returners who are ready to move to the next level,” said Hanczor. “The players have become so smart in the game of volleyball that we’re able to give them a lot more things to think about and they’re still able to execute really well without being overwhelmed by information.”

This, however, requires the players to lean into discomfort and muscle through vulnerability as they continue to make changes. With hard work and dedication, the players are able to leave the security of their known strengths and improve upon other skills as well.

“I’m vulnerable for a period of time, but then it becomes more successful in the end,” said Wahl. “I think [Cady] makes us realize that to be uncomfortable is a good thing, and so it gives us confidence in our own skill to be adaptable... [Cady] has faith in us and the courage to let us be vulnerable for a bit so that we can make changes in order to accommodate different strategies that will help us be successful against specific teams we play.”

Bowdoin hosts Conn. College tonight at 8 p.m. and will stay at home for a Saturday doubleheader against Tufts and Keene State at noon and 5 p.m., respectively.

Under the leadership of Head Coach Brianne Weaver and Assistant Coach Ellery Gould, the women’s soccer program at Bowdoin has consistently performed well over the past three years. 

Last year, the team had a regular season record of 11-3, which included an undefeated record at home. The team didn’t lose any game by more than a one-goal margin. The Polar Bears also earned a spot in the NCAA Division III Tournament for the third consecutive season and were awarded the Team Academic Award and the Silver Award for Team Ethics and Sportsmanship by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America. 

The team expects this season to be no exception to the continued success of the program.“We’ve got a great core of returning players,” Weaver said. “We have six outstanding senior leaders on the team who’ve performed at a very high level. I think the example’s been set over the past three seasons that we have pretty high goals that we want to go after, and it looks like we have a lot of the pieces to do that.”

Many key veteran players return to the roster this year, including Second Team Division III All-American Bridget McCarthy ’16 in goal and Second Team All-NESCAC forward Kiersten Turner ’16, who will serve as captains along with midfielder/defender Rachel Brooke ’16. The strong group of senior leaders also includes forward Jamie Hofstetter ’16, who led the team with six goals and five assists last season and earned First Team All-NESCAC and Second Team All-New England selections, as well as midfielder Maggie Godley ’16 and defender Sarah Wallace ’16 .

Even with the loss of six seniors from last year’s team, the squad has demonstrated their strength and resilience as players continue to adapt into new roles on the team.    

“There were people in the classes below [the seniors] that were ready to pick up the torch and run with it,” said Weaver. “Time will tell, but I think they’ve done an outstanding job so far.”The team also brings in a large group of new faces to the program this year.

“We’ve got a strong group of first years,” Gould said. “We have nine, which is a big class, but they’ve really been able to step up and become a part of the team right away, so that’s been really helpful for total team chemistry.”

Weaver described the team’s chemistry as a key element in the success and depth of the program and attributes its continued unity to the strong leadership within the team.

“We also just try to have a really strong team-first mentality and a really positive mindset all the time that all of us want to improve and get better every single day,” Weaver said. “We want it to be a pretty affirming experience to be a part of this team.”

The team maintains this mindset by paying special attention to the details during games and practices. 

“I would be happy with the team just knowing that on a day-to-day basis, we’re giving it our all, we’re trying our best and we’re doing everything we can to make each other better,” said Turner. “At the end of the day, it’s the little things that matter. It’s not necessarily how many wins or how many losses we have. It’s just feeling good about what we’re doing on a day-to-day basis.”

The team opened its season with a 2-0 defeat at Amherst last Saturday, giving up one goal in each half. Bowdoin got off 14 shots to the Jeffs’ 17 but was unable to put one in the back of the net. The Polar Bears rebounded the next day in their home opener with a 6-1 win over Husson University. Hofstetter, Turner, Julia Patterson ’19, Elizabeth Weathers ’18, Sophie al Mutawaly ’19 and Julia Bottone ’17 each scored. 

As they head into the rest of their schedule, the players are confident in their tactics on the pitch.

“Our team is more technical than we ever have been in the past,” said Turner. “We’re not a kick and run team at all; we’re very possession-focused, and I think on attack, we’re looking really good. We’ve been scoring goals, and then on defense and with [McCarthy], we’re very solid.”