The women’s lacrosse team faced some of its toughest league competition over Spring Break. The Polar Bears faced off against three teams that are ranked in the top 20 in the NCAA Division III rankings—No. 15 Williams, No. 20 Hamilton and No. 3 Middlebury. They started their season on the road at Williams where they lost a close game, 12-8. It was Williams’ first win against Bowdoin since 2010.
After Williams scored the first goal just three minutes into the game, the Polar Bears quickly responded with a goal from Jordan Smith ’14 and a pair of goals by Lindsay Picard ’16, all in the first ten minutes of the game. This success, however, was fleeting, as Williams answered the Polar Bears’ success with a 5-1 run during the last 16:03 of the period—leaving Bowdoin down 6-4 at halftime.
“Our domination in the first 10 minutes got a lot of fire going in the beginning of the game,” said captain Betsy Sachs ’14. “But it may have given us too much confidence—making us overestimate the control we had in the game. We shouldn’t have given up a lead like that.”
In the second half, Rebecca McGovern scored a quick pair of goals to put Williams up 8-5. The Bears, however, refused to back down. Bowdoin saw goals from seniors Smith and Sachs within five minutes of each other, trimming Williams’ lead to one goal. But four more Williams’ goals against a single Bowdoin goal, left Bowdoin with a disappointing and uncharacteristic loss to the Ephs.
The team battled its next tough NESCAC competitor, Hamilton, on its home turf, where Hamilton did not stand much of a chance. The Polar Bears enjoyed a convincing 13-9 win over the Continentals, their first NESCAC win of the season. The first 10 minutes of the game saw Bowdoin score five unanswered goals. Sachs had three goals, while Smith and Megan O’Connor ’16 had one apiece.
“This lead gave us a lot of confidence,” Smith said. “We could tell that Hamilton was starting to doubt themselves.”
The Bears capitalized on the Continentals lack of confidence and extended their lead to 8-2. The Continentals, however, came alive in the last five minutes of the first half, scoring two goals in five minutes. Bowdoin, however, left the first half on top with a spectacular goal from Olivia Raisner ’15, who scored off an assist from Smith with just one second left in the half.
The Bears did not lay down in the second half. The Continental’s came out strong with a 3-1 goal surge against Bowdoin. Hamilton’s second half saw the Bears’ lead trimmed to three goals [10-7]. With 23:25 remaining in the second half, the Bears knew the game was far from over.
“We were put on our heels a little bit, we realized didn’t have the game yet,” Sachs said, “We knew we needed to keep pressuring them. It was a reminder to the team that the game isn’t over yet.”
Consecutive goals from Picard and Dana White ’15, along with several late game saves from the Bears’ goalie Isabel Sippel ’15, lifted Bowdoin to victory.
The Polar Bears ended Spring Break with a game against Middlebury, a consistently tough competitor.
From the start of the game the two teams traded goals. With just 1:06 left in the first half, Sachs took advantage of a loose ball. With just 29 seconds left in the half Middlebury scored twice.
“These last two goals definitely took a little wind out of our sails going into half time,” Sachs said, “ We played them really close in the first half so it’s not like the game was out of reach at that point—but they gained a lot of momentum within that minute of play.”
The Panthers’ scoring surge continued into the second half. Three Middlebury players were able to rattle off nine unanswered goals. It wasn’t until the last three minutes of the second half that Bowdoin’s Picard and Sachs found the Panther’s half of the field with two unassisted goals. The Bears’ push, however, came to late as the whistle was blown thirty seconds after Sachs’ goal, leaving Bowdoin with a disappointing 14-6 loss.
The team will play at Trinity tomorrow at noon.
“If we play the way we know how to play and bring the same amount of energy and level of intensity into each game and practice, success will come,” Smith said.