Women's volleyball began the week with two wins and two losses at the MIT Invitational this weekend, but closed with a tight victory over Colby on Wednesday.
The Colby match was held at Farley, marking Bowdoin's first home NESCAC match of the 2008 season.
Going into the match, first year Gina Lonati expected a win.
"Our game against Colby is going to be intense, despite our victory over them several weeks ago," she said on Tuesday. "They know our offensive style, but we also know theirs."
The atmosphere in Farley Field House was appropriately animated for such an occasion, and the crowd's enthusiasm was only enhanced with the progressively competitive nature of the face-off.
Lawrence Wang '10, in attendance, noted the intensity of both the crowd and the game itself. "They were neck-and-neck for the entire time, in a back-and-forth play with no clear victors for the majority of the match," he said.
The set scores of the match corroborate Wang's observation. Colby opened the match triumphantly at 26-24, but fell in the next two sets at 25-19 and 25-23. However, in the fourth set, the Mules came back to take the match at a definitive 25-20. In the fifth and final set, however, the Polar Bears did not let the Mules off the hook. They finished the match at 15-10, thus securing their first official NESCAC win of the season.
Colby may have already experienced the Polar Bears' offensive style, but the team was still unable to overwhelm Bowdoin's Kristin Hanczor '12 and Gillian Page '10. While Hanczor carried the match with a career-high 18 kills, Page supported her with 11 kills of her own. Jenna Diggs' '10 added 36 assists and 27 digs.
The Polar Bears' experience at the 2008 MIT Invitational was not as successful. Last Friday, they fell to Springfield and Endicott at 3-0 each. However, Saturday witnessed their resurgence with Bowdoin victories over Vassar and Bridgewater State with respective scores of 3-1 and 3-0.
Hanczor and Page were again effective against Vassar, Hanczor with 16 and Page with 14 kills to build off of Diggs' 35 assists. Against Bridgewater, Page led with eight kills to Hanczor's seven, while Anna Noucas '11 posted a team-high 11 digs.
Although the matches against Springfield and Endicott were not as successful in terms of final score, they did not come without high points. Stephanie Drumright '11 collected seven kills against Springfield, while Diggs added 19 assists and 15 digs. Hanczor and Page again dominated against Endicott: Hanczor contributed eight kills, Page six kills and 10 digs.
Lonati admitted that the MIT Tournament was disappointing.
"This weekend didn't go as well as the team had hoped," she said. "We lost some tough matches to beatable opponents: Springfield and Endicott. Beating Vassar and Bridgewater State on Saturday did help lift our spirits, but we still need to prove that we've got what it takes to upset the top teams."
The Polar Bears have the opportunity to continue proving themselves this weekend at the Midcoast Classic, which Bowdoin will co-host with Bates. They start off the tournament on Friday with matches against Emmanuel and Keene at Bates before returning to Bowdoin on Saturday for a 10 a.m. match against Rivier College and a 4 p.m. game against Gordon.