Although many Bowdoin teams were riding hot streaks going into Spring Break, the Polar Bears struggled to continue their successes in postseason play.
Perhaps the hottest squad was the men's hockey team, who had won the NESCAC Championship the weekend before with a 5-2 win over Williams. The Polar Bears had played in the NESCAC championship game four times before, but the victory over Williams was the team's first championship win since they won the ECAC Championship in 1993.
The team achieved another milestone the next week, beating Neumann University on its home ice by a score of 2-1. The victory was the first NCAA Tournament win in program history.
First year goalie Steve Messina recorded 33 saves, while senior Bryan Rosata and sophomore Rob Toczylowski scored for the Polar Bears.
The Polar Bears headed into Spring Break with six straight victories, but were unable to beat Oswego in the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament during the first weekend of the break. The Lakers had trounced the Polar Bears 9-2 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament the year before.
Oswego scored first with 12:56 left in the first period, but senior Brendan Reich evened the score at 1-1 at the 10:44 mark. The teams then proceeded to trade goals until the score was 4-3 at the end of the second period. Reich scored again for the Polar Bears and Fanning added his first goal of the contest.
First year Harry Matheson scored for Bowdoin at the beginning of the third period to even the score again, but Oswego scored twice in the next 10 minutes to gain a 6-4 lead. Matheson's second goal at 15:55 was not enough, and Oswego scored again to secure a 7-5 victory. Messina finished the game with 41 saves.
Senior captain Kyle Shearer-Hardy was named a First Team All-American for the second year in a row, while sophomore Daniel Weiniger was named a Third Team All-American.
The women's basketball team won two NCAA Tournament games the weekend before Spring Break to advance to the Sweet Sixteen. The Polar Bears beat Salve Regina 74-64 in the first round of the tournament and beat Mount Saint Mary by a score of 61-53 in the second round.
Kaitlin Donahoe '13 led the Polar Bears to victory over Mount Saint Mary with 19 points, 10 rebounds and four assists, while senior Katie Bergeron and junior Ellery Gould added 14 and 12 points, respectively.
On the first weekend of the break, however, Bowdoin fell in overtime to Babson, a team the Polar Bears had not faced since the 2001 regular season. The Beavers improved their record to 30-0 with the victory.
The game started slowly for both teams, as both began by shooting 2-10 from the field. Both teams picked up the pace, however, and the score was tied at 21-21 with 4:43 remaining after Bergeron scored seven straight points for the Polar Bears.
Bowdoin gained its first lead of the half with 15 seconds left after junior Jill Henrikson made two free throws to put the score at 29-27. Babson then scored three quick points on a free throw and a put back to take a 30-29 lead into the half.
Both teams had offensive streaks at the beginning of the second half. With Bowdoin up 32-30, Babson went a 9-0 run that the Polar Bears responded to with a 15-0 run of their own. Bowdoin led 50-41 with 8:42 left to play, but allowed its lead to slip away, and Nicki Wuderman hit a three-pointer for the Beavers that tied the game and sent it into overtime.
The Polar Bears were only able to score two points in the overtime period on a Bergeron lay-up, and fell to the Beavers by a final score of 61-58.
The Polar Bears finished the season with a record of 24-6, and the Maine Women's Basketball Coaches Association named head coach Adrienne Shibles State Coach of the Year. Bergeron was also named Maine Player of the year and was selected to be on the First Team. Henrikson was named to the Second Team.
The track teams sent five athletes to the NCAA Championship during the first weekend of break. Coby Horowitz '14, Matt Gamache '13, Colin Fong '12 and Matt Hillard '12 competed in the distance medley relay and finished with a time of 10:03.46. The finish, which was 3.34 seconds off of first place, netted the team fifth place.
Elsa Millett '12 ran the 400-meter dash in 57.83 seconds to win her heat, but she failed to qualify for the final by .18 seconds.
The curling team, comprised of Margot Haines '13, Andrew Hancock '13, Carl Spielvogel '13 and Jay Tulchin '13, took first place in division four of the curling national championship in Chicago.
The Polar Bears finished their season with a record of 6-1 and also took home first place in the Maine State Championship.