The Men's Tennis Team improved to 6-3 on the year with easy victories over NESCAC foes Trinity and Colby this week. The Polar Bears have now won five matches in a row, and quite easily in the team's past three, en route to being honored with the rank of 14 this week by the national polls. Bowdoin faces its most difficult test this weekend, however, as the team takes on 20th-ranked Tufts today and then top-ranked Middlebury tomorrow.
Rain mercifully ended a Bowdoin-dominated match against Trinity on Sunday. Senior co-captains Mac Burke and Pat Keneally began the successful affair on the right foot, pulling out wins against Trinity's top single players. Burke, a First Team All-NESCAC player last year, defeated Brian Marsden 6-4, 6-2. Keneally defeated their second singles player, Brett Ramsey, 6-4, 6-4. Sam Bitetti '07 then broke Trinity's Jimmie Ames, 6-3, 6-4, giving Bowdoin a 3-0 lead in the match.
Bowdoin's sole loss came in the fourth single's match. Jon Hart of Trinity took the first set from first-year Garrett Gates fairly easily. However, Gates fought back, only to eventually fall in two, 6-3, 7-6.
Three doubles victories for Bowdoin finished the afternoon of competition. Burke and Gates defeated Trinity's Marsden and Hart.
Also, senior Bucky Jencks and Bitetti edged a combination of Ames and Ramsey, while Keneally and senior Barrett Lawson defeated Tom Dolan and Jeff Stempeck in an 8-2 rout.
The final two singles matches were not completed, as the rain began to pour and prevented the match from being finished properly. Because of the stoppage of play, the final score was 4-1.
With the win, Bowdoin improved to 5-3, while Trinity lost its first match of the spring and fell to 6-1.
In the second match of the week, Bowdoin defeated rival Colby in an easy match for the Polar Bears.
Bowdoin suffered just one loss in the singles matches against Colby. Burke won with ease, defeating their top singles player, John Fallon, 6-1, 6-0. Bitetti, playing in the second slot, beat Zach Schuman of Colby 6-3, 6-1. Gates, John Posey '04, and Jencks also won their singles matches, while Noah Buntman '08 fell to Tim Stenovec, 6-4, 6-2.
In a close match, Fallon and Ben Crane of Colby bested the top Bowdoin doubles squad of Burke and Gates. However, the combination of Jencks and Bitetti was too much for the second Colby team and Lawson and Fried defeated the third White Mule doubles team.
In the end, Bowdoin won the match, 6-1, raising Bowdoin's record to 6-3, while dropping Colby to 5-8.
Bowdoin plays host to two of the toughest teams in Division III this weekend in Tufts and Middlebury.
The match against Tufts will begin today at 3:00 p.m., while the Middlebury match is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. tomorrow. This should be some of the best tennis all year, so come and help push Bowdoin to victory!