After beating Wesleyan and Trinity last Saturday in Connecticut, the women's tennis team is surging with confidence as it enters the most challenging part of its season.
Bowdoin defeated Trinity 5-1 and Wesleyan 9-0, and every player contributed at least one win in the matchups.
The tightly scheduled games and a sudden lineup change made for a hectic day, but impressively, every doubles pairing won. Doubles play has historically been the team's weakness, but these victories may mark a turning point in converting three-set losses to wins.
This promising start to conference play is a testament to the extra emphasis the team placed on conditioning in the offseason.
"When you know that you're physically able to compete, that gives you a whole other level of confidence," captain Kellen Alberstone '13 said.
"We felt like what we did in the offseason really made an impact," she added. "The fact that we were able to so decisively win in both matches was really telling of the fact that we were fit—that we could last and play more than six hours of tennis."
Not only is the team feeling better physically, but its one newcomer, Emma Chow '15, went undefeated last weekend.
"Everyone's matured a lot now that we've had at least one season under our belt," Alberstone said. "We've developed our skills and we understand more what the competition is like."
"Everyone's beaten everyone in practice," she said. "So now someone who's playing at the bottom can beat people at the top. It makes us feel more confident."
That boost of assurance will be important for the No. 11 Polar Bears as they face an extremely demanding schedule for the rest of the month. The team gets a brief respite this weekend, but the next two weeks bring back-to-back-to-back matches against Middlebury, Tufts and Amherst—all ranked in the top 12 teams nationally.
The consecutive matches are a new test for the team, which is used to more variance its opponents' skill levels.
All but one of the team's remaining matches will be at home.
"Everything is going to come full force from now on," Alberstone said. "There's not much of a mental rest. We have to make sure that even if we lose a match, we don't have it in our heads in the next match."
Bowdoin's only action before next weekend will be a Thursday match against Colby.