The women’s volleyball team continued their strong start by going undefeated when they hosted the Mid-Coast Classic last weekend. Led by senior captains Taylor Vail and Ellie Brennan, the Polar Bears bested the University of New Brunswick, Brandeis and Colby-Sawyer all in straight sets. The team’s record improved to 11-4 (2-1 in conference).
Mid-Coast play began on Friday for the women, as they took on the University of New Brunswick (UNB) in an exhibition match. UNB plays a winter season for women’s volleyball, so the games they played at Bowdoin were part of their pre-season preparation.
Vail stressed that despite a fairly easy win, 25-14, 25-6, 25-10, the games were not meaningless.
“It was a really good opportunity for us to improve our play and improve what was happening on our side of the net,” she said.
Head Coach Karen Corey took a similar attitude to the competition.
“It was an opportunity for us to keep improving certain components of our game,” she said. “In the Mid-Coast Classic we were able to really work on these things, and we won our games because we did them well.”
“It was really exciting to finally be at home this season,” Corey added. “We just wanted to own our home court, which we clearly did.”
The team will need a little help to contend for the NESCAC title. Their only in-conference loss so far was to Williams, who is still undefeated in conference.
The Polar Bears had been saddled with injuries at the time, and so far four of their six starters have missed games for injury this season. Vail said she was “definitely looking forward to playing Williams again with our full team intact and ready to go.”
Looking forward, Vail is wary of matchups with Tufts and Middlebury, both of whom are still undefeated in NESCAC play.
“Those are two games that we look forward to and see as our biggest competitions left so we can still battle it out for first place with Williams,” she said.
The Polar Bears will attempt to continue their five-match winning streak tonight at Colby, whose record stands at 4-6 overall and 1-1 in conference.