This past weekend, the women’s soccer team played two incredibly close games against nationally-ranked Amherst and Williams for the NESCAC Championship title. Both games went into penalty kicks, and after Bowdoin upset Amherst, they lost to Williams to earn distinction of NESCAC runners-up. The Polar Bears also received an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in five years, and will play Scranton University this coming Saturday in Ithaca, New York.
The first game of the weekend was the NESCAC semifinals against a heavily favored Amherst side ranked eighth in the nation. Regular play ended in a 3-3 tie. After two scoreless overtime periods and seven rounds of penalty kicks, Bowdoin ultimately emerged on top.
Early in the second half, the Lord Jeffs took a 3-1 lead, breaking the 1-1 first-half tie. Less than a minute after Amherst’s third goal, first year Jamie Hofstetter retaliated with a momentum-shifting goal on a penalty kick she earned after being fouled inside Amherst’s goal box. Later in the game, Abby Einwag ’15 sent a shot sailing over the Amherst goaltender’s head off a feed from Morgan Woodhouse ’14, forcing the game into overtime.
Neither team pulled ahead during the overtime periods, and the match went to a penalty shootout. After seven rounds of penalty kicks, senior captain Toni DaCampo ended the game when she skimmed a shot off the post and into the goal.
Goalkeeper Bridget McCarthy ’16 played a remarkable match, stopping several hard shots from Amherst both during the shootout and regular play to help the team to victory.
The win against Amherst sent the Polar Bears into the NESCAC finals, in which they faced Williams the following day. The Ephs scored the first goal of the game. Soon after, Hofstetter came up big for the team again, netting a shot past the Williams goalkeeper and tying the score at 1-1. Neither team scored despite several chances in the rest of regulation play and the two subsequent overtime periods.
The game was decided by the team’s second shootout of the weekend, which Williams won 3-0. The Eph’s win marks the fifth time in the past six years they have taken home the NESCAC title.
“Both games were mental battles, especially going into two overtimes two days in a row,” said Molly Popolizio ’14. “The penalty kicks are just a toss up every time, and unfortunately the second day didn’t work in our favor.”
Despite the loss in the NESCAC final match, the team managed to earn its first NCAA Tournament bid since 2007, along with three other NESCAC teams. Bowdoin will now face Scranton (9-7-4) in the opening round at Ithaca College on Saturday, and, depending on the outcome of the game, could be playing for a few weeks to come.
Despite losing the game against Williams, Bowdoin competed better against NESCAC foes this year than the team has since 2007. According to DeCampo, the departure of last year’s coach, Maren Rojas, and the period of time in which the team remained without a coach brought the team together.
“We were forced to self-motivate and train, lift, stay connected as a team for ourselves and that definitely strengthened us as a whole. Also, our ability to play a role in selecting and interviewing our new coach and having a say in the direction of our program for the future was empowering and a great experience for the team to have,” she said.
Popolizio emphasized that the new coach, Brianne Weaver, has been an asset to the team.
“I think that Bri does a great job allowing us to make certain decisions for ourselves,” said Popolizio. “She emphasizes that we are the ones that are playing, which shows how much confidence she has in us as players.”
When asked how it felt for the team to get their first NCAA bid in five years during her first season as head coach, Weaver gave all the credit to the players.
“I think for any coach, no matter what year it is, is a great thing because it what it shows is that the team has done what it takes to get the attention on a national stage and impress a pretty big group of people,” said Weaver. “I was really happy more so for the team because they worked for it, they put in the time, and really came together when it counted to make it happen.”
This year, sixty-four teams received bids to the NCAA Tournament. Bowdoin will need to win their next four games to make it to the NCAA National Championship in San Antonio, Texas in December.