After winning a combined 11 matches in the first two months of the season, the men's and women's squash teams beat eight more opponents at last weekend's Maine Event, bringing the men's record to 10-11 and the women's to 9-9.
The highlight of the weekend for the women's team came Sunday morning, when it upset George Washington for the second time this season in a thrilling 5-4 win.
Monica Wlodarczyk '13 secured the victory for the Polar Bears, coming back from a two-set deficit to win the last game of the match.
"We played them earlier in the season and we had good matches with them," captain Bonnie Cao '13 said. "We knew that if we played well we would be able to beat them."
Cao went 5-1 this weekend, leading the team in wins, followed closely by Rachel Barnes '15 with four wins. Wlodarczyk, Alden Drake '15 and Michaela Martin '14 each had three wins.
"Bonnie was excellent," Head Coach Tomas Fortson said. "She was playing the best she's ever played."
Fortson said he wasn't surprised by the performance of his teams.
As the season progresses, the women have increasingly been able to convert close matches to wins, a testament to what Cao considers her team's biggest strength—perseverance.
"We fight a lot harder than other people," she said. "We don't give up; we chase down every ball. It just takes time and the more we keep playing and practicing and pushing ourselves, we learn how to compete."
This attitude, along with depth of talent, has been the key to the team's recent wins.
In the past week and a half, the women's team has won five of its last seven matches.
"Compared to previous years, there's no drop-off in our ladder of talent," Cao said. "The level of play from everyone on the team is elevated since the beginning of the season, and that's one of the reasons we're starting to win more matches."
"I don't think our inexperience is obvious at all," she added.
The men's team had four decisive victories and two close losses this weekend.
Barrett Takesian '12, Will Fantini '13 and Max Bearse '15 performed especially well at the Maine Event, as they all went undefeated throughout the three days of play.
"It's hard to single out any one player, but Max had a particularly strong weekend at the No. 9 position," Fortson said. "He got clutch wins against Drexel, Brown and GW, and those were close matches against tough teams."
With its recent wins, Bowdoin seems well situated for upcoming NESCAC tournament, which begins tonight at Trinity College.
The men are seeded No. 5, while the women picked up the No. 7 seed.
Tomorrow, the men will face No. 4 Bates in the first round for a rematch from last week.
The women will face No. 10 Connecticut College, which they defeated 7-2 in December.
"We saw a lot of our players get to the next level last weekend," Fortson said. "We expect more going into the NESCAC tournament."