Courtesy of Brian Beard

In an electric doubleheader weekend, the women’s tennis team (5–3; 3–0 NESCAC) landed victories against Bates College (2–9; 1–4 NESCAC) and Brandeis University (7–5) last Saturday. The pair of wins boosts the Polar Bears to the tenth-ranked team nationally in Division III.

Team captain Cara Hung ’26 expressed that the team entered the weekend with a lot of determination.

“Going into the weekend, we had really great energy. A win against Bates is a conference win, and Brandeis is a feisty team, so we really didn’t want to back down from any challenges,” Hung said.

First, the Polar Bears commanded the doubles matches with wins from Bella Hartung ’28 and Zoe Sun ’27 (6–0), Hung and Suzanne Pogorelec ’28 (6–2) and Caroline Stuhlfaut ’27 and Naomi Williams ’29 (6–2). The team remained in control, earning six straight wins in the singles. Specifically, Hung expressed her preparation toward the doubles point in the week leading up to it.

“One of the things that we focused on with the practices leading up [to last weekend] was our doubles because it gives us all the momentum so we can feel good going into singles,” Hung said. “We especially worked on creating all this good chemistry that we have, which, all in all, is what really helped us get the edge over Bates.”

As the Polar Bears duel against Bates came to a close, the team swept the Bobcats 7–0. Pogorelec emphasized how part of their success is due to the trust team members have with each other.

“At the team’s core, we trust each other on the court and since we’ve put [in] many hours [of] practice, we can have such a good relationship off the court as well,” Pogorelec said. “It’s a big reason why we have [had]the success that we do on the court.”

Later that afternoon, the Polar Bears beat Brandeis 6–1. Sun emphasized that Saturday’s match against Bates gave the team an enormous boost of energy and confidence heading into their match against the Judges.

“Being able to shut out Bates brings so much morale and energy for the next match. Because of our win, we were super confident going into Brandeis, so it was nice to be closer to our goal of winning both dual matches and having good momentum,” Sun said.

Hung highlighted the grit and momentum necessary to overcome Brandeis.

“The team was just being so disciplined, and something that doesn’t really get kind of shouted out as much or reflected in the box score was the energy,” Hung said. “Especially in [Pogorelec’s match], I noticed that she was converting defense to offense really well and being so gritty. Her matchup was such a good boost for the team as well as for [Williams] and [Stuhlfaut] to step in [and play] doubles was super impressive.”

In addition to sharing the team’s overarching goals of making a deep run in the NCAA tournament and performing well at NESCACs at the end of the season, Hung expressed a personal sense of gratitude and reflection in her final year.

“Whenever I step onto the court, knowing that this is my last year, I’m trying to take it all in, because it’s honestly the reason why Bowdoin has been the best four years of my life. Being a part of Bowdoin women’s tennis is something bigger than myself,” Hung said.

Today, the Polar Bears will travel to Pittsburgh, Pa. to play fifth-ranked Emory University (8–4) and 14th-ranked Carnegie Mellon University (12–3).