Courtesy of Brian Beard

The field hockey team (3–0; 1–0 NESCAC) saw a successful start to the season, with recent wins against Colby College (0–2; 0–1 NESCAC) and the University of Southern Maine (USM) (2–3). The Polar Bears had a 3-2 victory against Colby on Saturday and a 4-0 victory at USM on Tuesday night.

In the Colby game, Hannah Balmelli ’28 scored the first goal, with Emily Ferguson ’27 getting the next shot with a sweeping assist from Maddie Mrva ’27. Ferguson then gave Bowdoin an edge with a successful penalty stroke.

According to Ferguson, one of the key factors to the Colby win was teamwork.

“I feel like we have a really good team culture. We all get along really well off the field, so I think that translates a lot on the field, especially in a close game,” Ferguson said. “I was just looking to the people next to me, and being like, ‘I want to play for them even though I’m really tired.’”

Mrva mentioned how practice strengthened her teamwork with Ferguson and led to the second goal of the game.

“We work a lot on the pitch from the top and on tips going in and redirecting the ball,” Mrva said. “What we worked on in practice, a lot, was exactly what we executed on those corners.”

Ferguson explained how technical factors were also key in the team’s success against Colby.

“I think we adjusted to the surface really well,” Ferguson said. “They have a field turf which is different from [the astro turf] we play on, so I think it took us a little bit in the first quarter to get used to that. But toward the end, we were finding ways to get around their defenders, throwing balls into space and running onto them rather than carrying a lot.”

Mrva added that strategic use of the team’s defensive press made for better gameplay.

“Our press, which is how we pressure [our opponents] when they have the ball … was really good,” Mrva said.“We were able to make them make mistakes, so that was a little less running for us because we kind of forced them to make those mistakes.”

Mrva and the team hope to improve their consistency throughout the entire 60-minute game moving forward.

“Something that we always try to improve on is playing a full 60, so playing through all four quarters consistently,” Mrva said. “I think that’s something that we always try to build on after every game.”

The team’s main goal ahead of the USM game was to focus on themselves rather than setting expectations for the other team.

“I feel like we try to go in with no expectations and just play our game rather than expecting [the opposing team] to be a certain way,” Mrva said. “We really try to focus on what we want to work on, and every game is a learning opportunity. So [there are] definitely not any expectations for any team that we play, ever.”

Ferguson agreed with Mrva’s sentiment.

“We know we have to earn every win and also, each year every team is different, so we can’t base how we perceive a team based on how they were last year,” Ferguson said.

Going into the rest of the season, the team aims to steadily keep up the effort and enjoy the game as much as possible.

“I feel like we’re a pretty ambitious group. We’ve proven really early on that we can find ways to win by playing really well together,” Ferguson said. “So I think every season, we just want to be playing with each other for as long as possible and into November. We know that that comes from showing up every single day, so we take it day by day, game by game.”

The team hosts Connecticut College (2–1; 0–1 NESCAC) tomorrow at 11 a.m.