The women's tennis team came out on top with an 8-1 victory in its match against Colby yesterday afternoon. With this win, the Polar Bears improved their record to 8-3 (2-3 NESCAC).
Kellen Alberstone '13 emerged victorious in first singles with 6-0, 6-0 scores. Emily Lombardi '12, Emma Lewis '14, Kate Winingham '14, Chantalle Lavertu '13 and Susanna Howard '14 all defeated their opponents in their respective singles matches.
In doubles, Alberstone and Winningham teamed up in first doubles and beat Colby, as did second doubles players Lewis and Lombardi.
Last weekend, the team suffered its first serious setback of the season, bringing home a pair of losses to NESCAC rivals Williams and Tufts. The weekend left the 12th ranked Polar Bears 7-3 for the season and 2-2 in the NESCAC.
The weekend began with the Polar Bear's first D-III loss of the season to the fifth-ranked Tufts Jumbos 8-1 on Friday evening in Medford.
Emma Lewis '13 was the sole Polar Bear winner on Friday afternoon, collecting a three-set decision at number three singles. The match was significantly closer than the score indicated, however, with five of the six singles matches being decided in the third set, with Tufts prevailing in four of the five matches.
The team then traveled to Williamstown to face off against the fourth-ranked Ephs on Saturday. The Polar Bears fell 7-2 in the hard-fought decision. Though Lombardi and Lewis earned a 8-6 victory at the number two doubles slot, Bowdoin trailed 2-1 going into singles play, with only Alberstone at the number one singles position taking a decisive 6-4, 6-1 victory. Despite this solid win at the top of the bracket, no other Polar Bear managed to approach defeating their opponent in singles play.
"Coming out of those matches we are pretty encouraged and motivated to improve these next few weeks in order to take them down in NCAA's or NESCACS," said Winingham. "Everyone on the team has come out to every match with good energy and now I think we have gained more confidence to bring on the court as well."
Going into this weekend's play Alberstone stressed the importance of the upcoming matches.
"The match on Saturday is going to be one of our biggest matches of the season," she said. "We lost to Middlebury three times last year so it would be a great accomplishment to come out with the win. We are extremely excited to have all of our parents and alumni cheering us on this weekend."
The team will face off against the Middlebury Panthers tomorrow at 10 a.m. in their last home match of the year.
-Nora Biette-Timmons contributed to this report