Volleyball defeats Bates and Tufts in pivotal NESCAC weekend
October 25, 2024

Everything clicked for the volleyball team this past weekend. The Polar Bears won both conference away games against Bates College (9–10; 2–7 NESCAC) and Tufts University (9–9; 6–3 NESCAC), with both matches holding major playoff implications as the regular season winds down.
Kicking off the weekend up the road in Lewiston, the Polar Bears took down the Bates Bobcats in straight sets (25–23, 25–13, 25–20). Outside hitter Skye LaMendola ’27 led the game with 11 kills and 11 digs. Right-side hitter Alison Smith ’28 continued her rookie season with ten kills and three blocks, including back-to-back putbacks in the second set and the final kill to wrap up the game in the third set.
Haley Campau ’27, a middle blocker, looked to implement the team’s game plan against the Bobcats, focusing on error-free volleyball while having lots of fun on the court.
“Our biggest goal going into this weekend was to ‘play like us’—that became a mantra for our team,” Campau said. “I really like to laugh and have a ton of fun on the court, so making sure I’m still ‘playing like me’ means really having fun with the game through the last point.”
Smith echoed Campau’s sentiments and added that she always aims to have a next-rally mentality.
“For me, it’s responding to my error. If I make an error one time, I’m not going to make the same one the next time, or I’m going to do something better with the ball the next time,” Smith said.
After the win, the Polar Bears came back to campus for one night before driving down to Boston for a Saturday afternoon game against Tufts.
In a tight first set, the Polar Bears and the Jumbos were tied 17–17 before Bowdoin went on an 8–2 run to win the set 25–19. Besides the first handful of points, the College led for all of the second set, taking it 25-19. The third set was tight, with no team leading by more than two points at a time. With a run of kills and an ace by Smith, the Polar Bears won the final set 25–21 to finish the weekend with a double sweep. Smith finished the game with seven kills and four blocks, while Campau led the Polar Bears with ten kills and four blocks.
The win didn’t come without adversity, though. In the NCAA, each team can make 15 substitutions per set, excluding substitutions for the libero, a key defensive player who plays a large role in ball control.
“We ran out of substitutions in the tail end of the third set, so we really needed to clinch the win,” Campau said. “We had a passer playing in the front row, which she has never played in her entire life, so it was a little chaotic.”
Despite the setback, the team continued to fight.
“We handled it super well. I had to go back to serve, which usually does not happen,” Smith said. “It was our final few points, we had our DS [defensive specialist] in the front row and I was serving. I was like, ‘Okay, got to get it in bounds.’”
Campau knows that these two conference wins will propel the team moving forward into the final stretch of the regular season.
“The Tufts win specifically puts us in a pretty good spot moving forward. It did a lot for our confidence as a team,” Campau said. “Bates was a really good clean win. We didn’t make a ton of errors or drop a set to them, which was huge. And then going into Tufts, it was like, ‘Let’s just see what we can do!’”
While their conference record is below .500, the Polar Bears have not been easy opponents. The College is currently sixth in the NESCAC, ahead of Bates and Amherst College (10–8; 1–7 NESCAC), opponents whom the Polar Bears defeated in straight sets. Against the five teams higher than them in the standings, the College forced all the games to four or five sets, including a pivotal game against Colby College (19–1; 8–0 NESCAC), where the Polar Bears lost 11–15 in the fifth set.
The College has two more NESCAC games that will affect its playoff prospects: Connecticut College (13–6; 3–5 NESCAC) on November 1 and Trinity College (17–3; 5–3 NESCAC) on November 2.
“There are a lot of good teams in [the NESCAC] this year. We have people with advantages they didn’t have in the past,” Campau said. “The conference is turned on its head right now—we are Hamilton’s only win, but we just swept Tufts. Everything’s out of whack, so it’s anyone’s game.”
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