Courtesy of Brian Beard

The men’s lacrosse team has been dominating NESCAC competition this season. The Polar Bears are undefeated in conference games (8–0) and are outscoring their opponents (89–41) in their current five-game winning streak.

At the forefront of the team scoring is attacker Jason Lach ’25, who currently leads the team with 36 goals. Lach scored four goals against Williams College last Saturday and three goals against Amherst College on Monday.

“The last few games have been some of our best games of the year so I feel like we’re peaking at the right time,” Lach said.

Lach is particularly proud of the team’s performance against Amherst earlier this week (19–8).

“I feel like the Amherst game was probably our best game of the year, if not one of the best games we’ve played since I’ve been here,” Lach said. “It was the most complete effort we put forth yet.”

The team’s non-conference results count for the team’s record but not toward the NESCAC playoffs. Its only two losses of the year fell in this out-of-conference category against Babson College (6–13) and Endicott College (14–17).

“We had losses that were sort of a setback, more towards the beginning of the year,” Lach said. “I think those were good in the long run because they allowed us to focus and fix some things and served as a wake-up call.”

The team applied its learnings from these early losses in its next game against Hamilton College. Lach describes the win against Hamilton College as the biggest turnaround this year.

“[The Hamilton game] was close the first half …. Getting that win has given us the confidence to win these last few games,” Lach said. “And obviously the Williams and Amherst games were really big because those are two teams that we lost to last year. It was good to beat both of them in a three-day span and get some revenge in that sense.”

The Polar Bears’ recent wins against Amherst and Williams have left Lach optimistic about the coming games against Tufts University and Wesleyan University as the team closes up the regular season.

“We’re undefeated right now in conference play and we’re technically the one seed right now,” Lach said. “But we have two big games left. So ideally, we’d want to win out and host the NESCAC playoffs.”

Hosting NESCAC semifinal or championship games would mark a first in the Bowdoin history books.

“We haven’t hosted the NESCAC semifinals or championship since I’ve been here, so that would be really cool,” Lach said. “The energies are very different if you host. Especially this year, there’s been a lot of close games across the NESCAC so home-field advantage is big.”

Lach describes his first-year season as the highlight of his athletic career at Bowdoin, although this season is running a close second.

“[In my first year], we lost the NESCAC championship game, but then we went on a run in the tournament. We made it to the NCAA quarterfinals and ended up losing to the team that won the national championship,” Lach said. “That was the best year in Bowdoin lacrosse history.”

Lach sees this year as picking up from the season he experienced as a first-year athlete. He hopes to set new records in the NESCAC championship playoffs and the NCAA tournament.

“Last year, we had high expectations and we had a good season, but it wasn’t as great as we wanted it to be. Our season ended shorter than we would have liked,” Lach said. “That’s a big reason why these next few games are really exciting, because we’re in a great spot to extend our season and go as far as we can.”

Lach’s passion for lacrosse goes back to his childhood. Coming from Washington, D.C., where lacrosse is a popular sport, he started playing in first grade and has been hooked ever since.

“No one in my family had really played lacrosse [before] my older sister. That probably was the start of it. I wanted to play because my sister played it,” Lach said.

Lach loves the fast-paced and physical style of the game, but the team spirit and camaraderie nurtured in lacrosse are most special to him.

“I think there’s a special relationship on [the lacrosse] team. That’s definitely the reason why I have continued to love the sport, especially coming to college,” Lach said.

At Bowdoin, Lach sees the team as core to his college experience. He values time spent with his teammates, whether it is studying or taking a polar plunge in frigid Maine waters.

“I came from an area where lacrosse was definitely really popular, but I’d never been on a team as close as the team that we have here,” Lach said.

As Lach looks ahead at the season, he is excited to help push the team to perform at its highest potential.

“We’re in a really good spot right now where we decide our own fate. We have two more regular season games and … I think we can be in a really good spot to make a big playoff run,” Lach said.

The team will play against Wesleyan University tomorrow.