The past two weeks have held mixed results for the men's and women's squash teams as they battle through the heart of the season.
Last week, the Polar Bears traveled to Providence to take on the Brown Bears. Bowdoin suffered two 8-1 losses, with wins by junior co-captain David Funk on the men's side and senior co-captain Kate Gormley on the women's side.
The women, rebounding from the loss, were able to defeat Bates three days later in a nail-biting 5-4 victory in Lewiston. The score was 4-4 going into senior co-captain Biz Gillespie's match in the No. 5 slot. Gillespie was able to clinch victory for the Polar Bears in four dramatic games against Bates' Mimi Neal. The men were not as lucky against the Bobcats, losing by a disappointing score of 9-0.
Last weekend, the Polar Bears traveled to Trinity for the NESCAC tournament. The women defeated Hamilton in the quarterfinals by a score of 6-3, with wins coming from the top six players on the ladder: sophomore Elena Laird in four games, sophomore Lauren Gesswein in three, Gormley in three, senior Alex Franceschi in three, Gillespie in three, and first year Lizzie Warner in three. In the semifinals, the women faced a strong Williams team and lost by a score of 9-0. Their final match came against Middlebury on Sunday. In this match, the top of the women's ladder came through again, as numbers 1-5 claimed victory for Bowdoin.
The men's team suffered a terrible day on Saturday as they dropped matches to close rivals Amherst and Colby, both by a score of 5-4. Despite these two heartbreaking losses, the team was able to rebound on Sunday in a contested match against Middlebury. Wins for the Polar Bears against Middlebury came from sophomore Andy Bernard at No. 1 in three games, sophomore Rahul Madan Mohan at No. 4 in five games, senior co-captain Robert Lynn at No. 5 in three games, junior Arun Makhija at No. 7 in four games, and junior Rob Stanley at No. 8 in a dramatic come-from-behind win in five games.
"After a disappointing weekend, this match was a bittersweet victory," said Mohan. "It is important for our team to learn from our mistakes and to start preparing for nationals."
The mentality of both teams coming out of the weekend is optimistic but with a realistic view of the challenges remaining in the season.
"It has been great to have everyone back post-winter break," said Gillespie. "I think that the results from our Bates match last week and NESCACs this weekend reflect how we have come together as a strong team of fierce competitors. These wins will hopefully give us the momentum necessary to beat the most challenging teams in our division, such as Brown and Mt. Holyoke, at Nationals."
On Wednesday, the women played off that energy to achieve an easy 7-2 win over Colby. They will enter this weekend with good momentum as they face Tufts, GWU, and the University of Toronto at Bowdoin.
The men hope to come out of this weekend with flying colors as well: they will face Tufts, MIT, and Northeastern at Bowdoin.