After a season in which the Bowdoin Women's Tennis Team broke the school record for single-season wins and for consecutive wins, it was finally brought to its knees this Saturday in a match against Williams?but not for long. Only a day after losing 7-2 to Williams, the Polar Bears reasserted themselves with an impressive 8-1 victory against Hamilton College, closing the regular season with a record of 17-1.
Saturday's match got off to a shaky start, with two of the three doubles matches resulting in Bowdoin defeats. In first doubles, Sarah D'Elia '09 and Kristen Raymond '08 fell to Williams's Cary Gibson and Annie Schneidman, with a final score of 8-4.
Co-captains Christine D'Elia '07 and Kelsey Hughes '07 saw similarly fruitless results in their 8-1 loss to Grace Baljon and Allison Rottkamp. However, with the younger Brett Davis '10 and Rachel Waldman '09 team, the Polar Bears began to regain their footing; this final set of doubles against Williams's Ashley Parsons and Annie Hancock concluded in a close but definitive 8-6 Bowdoin victory.
Starting off the singles matches, while Sarah D'Elia fought opponent Gibson to three sets, she lost the final set, 6-1. Meanwhile, teammates Raymond and Hughes lost to their respective rivals of Baljon and Parsons, both in only two sets.
The next two sets played out in an almost identical fashion, with Williams's Rottkamp defeating Christine D'Elia in two 6-1 sets and Hancock sweeping Davis at 6-1 and 6-0. Waldman led the Bears in their only successful singles match, overcoming Schneidman in the final face-off of the day with scores of 6-1 and 6-4, bringing the cumulative match score to 7-2.
Though coming off a disheartening loss to the Ephs, the Bears faced Hamilton in full-force on Sunday. This time, they got off on the right foot with a doubles sweep. Raymond and Sarah D'Elia opened with their defeat of Hamilton's Laura Brantley and Emily Poe at 8-4.
Hughes and Christine D'Elia followed, trouncing Elizabeth Goheen and Ashley Pardoe with a final score of 8-4. In the third doubles round, first-years Carly Hess and Elizabeth Pedowitz took the court and defeated Hamilton's Beth McDonald and Mary Wilder equally successfully, concluding the match 8-1 and the doubles rounds altogether 3-0.
This time, going into the singles Bowdoin had the distinctive lead. The Bears, however, took nothing for granted and continued their victorious streak. Raymond, Davis, Waldman, Pedowitz, and Alexandra Franceschi '09 all won their matches in two sets. Although Charlotte Hitch '09 lost her match against Hamilton's McDonald, it was not without a fight: their match went to three sets, at 2-6, 6-3, and 6-3.
"I don't think anyone had any idea how amazingly well the team was going to do this season. We just kept winning and winning...and winning," said Pedowitz, highlighting the team's record-breaking 17-1 season. "And now we have NESCACs and NCAAs to look forward to."
As a result of their successful season, the Bears earned the second seed and a first-round bye in the upcoming NESCAC Championship Tournament. The tournament will start this weekend at Amherst College; on Saturday, Bowdoin will face the winner of third-seeded Amherst and sixth-seeded Colby.
"It's exciting to be part of such a great team, and I feel like we have really bonded," Pedowitz said. "There is no doubt in my mind that the team is going to do really well."