The men’s and women’s tennis teams both saw their last action of the regular season with the women falling 8-1 to Williams, and the men losing to Williams 7-2 and defeating the Stevens Institute of Technology (SIT) 8-1.
The women concluded the regular season with a 13-5 record (6-2 NESCAC) and are ranked No. 7 in the nation.
In doubles play, the women fell 2-1 to the Ephs. The doubles pair of captain Kate Winingham ’14 and Samantha Stadler ’17 was the sole Bowdoin win with its 8-6 victory at No. 2.
Emma Lewis ’14 was the only Polar Bear to snatch a singles victory from Williams. Lewis took a straight-set (6-0, 6-4) win at No. 5. Joulia Likhanskaia ’17 and Kyra Silitch ’17, at No. 2 and No. 6 respectively, were both able to push their matches to the third set before falling to their opponents.
“I think that everyone on the team feels that we can compete with Williams. A lot of the matches were really close,” said Lewis. “There is a chance we may play them again this weekend and we are all excited for the challenge.”
Men
On Saturday, the men lost to Williams 7-2 in yet another battle of nationally-ranked powerhouses, and the teams entered the contest ranked No. 12 and No. 5 respectively. The men’s team lost to Williams on Saturday before beating SIT on Sunday. The Polar Bears finished their regular season campaign with a record of 10-8 overall and 4-4 in the NESCAC.
The men were unable to achieve victory in doubles play against the Ephs. Sam King ’14 and Luke Trinka ’16 came close to a win at the No. 1 position, but fell in a hard-fought 9-7 loss.
Bowdoin went 4-2 in singles play. Sam King ’14 and Chris Lord ’14 were able to snatch wins at the No. 3 and No. 4 positions, respectively.
“Williams is the defending national champion—we knew it was very important to get a lead in doubles. Unfortunately, we lost the lead,” said King. “I’m proud of the way everyone fought. We are definitely excited to get another opportunity to play them, we are very capable of winning.”
The men closed out their regular season with a statement, shutting out Stevens in doubles play 3-0 and defeating the Ducks 5-1 in singles play. Noah Bragg ’15 was the only Bowdoin player to lose at singles, falling at No. 1 in the third set.
“As a team, we have been improving all season,” said Kyle Wolstencroft ’15. “No matter who we face as the season continues we are confident in our ability.”
Both the men’s and women’s tennis teams have qualified for the NESCAC playoffs and both teams will host Trinity College in the first round on May 2.
“I think Trinity is a really tough team and always comes out fired up,” said Lewis. “Right now we are only thinking about this match and are putting all our effort towards winning. We are trying not to take it one game at a time and not focus on the semifinals and NCAA’s just yet.”
“We know Trinity will be a difficult contest. We had a long five-hour match with them in California that ended 6-3 in our favor,” said King. “We have an idea of the types of players we will be facing. We have mostly been focusing on doubles play in practice and on specific situational work.”