The triumph of women's volleyball over Trinity last Saturday provided an uplifting contrast to Bowdoin's other face-offs with the Bantams that day. While football, women's soccer, and field hockey each met defeat against Trinity, Bowdoin Women's Volleyball crushed the Bantams with a 3-0 sweep.
However, the team was less successful in last week's Friday evening loss to Wesleyan and its Saturday afternoon loss to Connecticut College.
Wesleyan entered the Friday match with a strong 15-5 record against Bowdoin's then 13-10 standing. The Bears were unable to overturn the Cardinals' dominant position, falling to them 3-0 with successive sets of 25-19, 25-12, and 25-17. Throughout the game, Kelly Kopchick '11 and Gillian Page '10 each posted five kills and first year Kristin Hanczor's contributed six kills and three blocks. Page also added 11 digs, while Jenna Diggs contributed nine digs as well as 17 assists.
"Friday night was a tough match, and we weren't able to pull through," Hanczor said. "But afterwards, we came together as a team and figured out what we needed to do to compete with Trinity and Connecticut College."
Jillian Berkman '12 seconded Hanczor's optimism about the Trinity match.
"We went into the game with a lot of confidence, since Trinity had lost to Bates the night before," she said.
With set scores of 25-18, 25-20, and 25-23, the Bears were able to successfully transfer that confidence into effective offensive play. Page led the offense with 10 kills, while Hanczor contributed an additional nine. Their attacks built on the 25 assists of setter Jenna Diggs '10. On the defensive front, Diggs and Page also added a respective 21 and 13 digs.
Berkman believes that Bowdoin's final 3-2 match of the weekend against Connecticut College was even more dramatic than its 3-0 victory against Trinity.
"Connecticut was the second ranking team in our conference, and we took them to five sets," she said.
The tightness of the five sets at 25-23, 21-25, 25-16, 20-25, and 15-9 attests to the intensity of the competition between the Bears and the Camels. Twice the Bears fought back in order to tie the game, but after snatching the fourth set they were unable to close with a victorious fifth.
Instead, victory against Connecticut manifested itself in the strength of Bowdoin's individual and team play.
Hanczor called the match "awesome" while Gina Lonati '12 mentioned the effort of the team despite the loss.
"We played hard, hit hard, and had some big contributions from many players," Lonati said.
Among contributions were Hanzcor with 13 kills and five block assists and Diggs with 35 assists and 14 digs.
This weekend Bowdoin will compete in the Hall of Fame Tournament at Smith College. Friday evening sets them against Springfield before a to-be-determined match on Saturday.
"We are really looking forward the tournament, where we are ranked seventh in the top eight of the pool against rivals Williams, Amherst, Springfield, and Wesleyan," Lonati said. "This is our weekend to make a statement about our team. It's exciting!"
Bowdoin will also face Endicott in an away game at 7 p.m. on Wednesday evening.