Katie Doherty ’17

Athlete of the Week: Ana Leon '16

Ultimate Frisbee

Playing Chaos Theory this year has been a disaster for most opposing teams. The women’s ultimate Frisbee team has earned its third consecutive bid to the D-III national championship, and will be the favorite to win for the second year in a row. What had been labeled a “rebuilding year” by some has become a shot at the national title in part because of Ana Leon ’16, appropriately nicknamed Calamity.
Friends on her high school basketball team convinced Leon, an Atlanta native, to try the game during her freshman year. She was already familiar with the sport, saying it is “something you played on the playground [in Atlanta] instead of football.” She stuck with the game, finding that a lot of the skills she developed through 11 years of basketball translated. By her senior year, her high school coach invited her to try out for the U-19 women’s team he would coach at the world championships in Ireland. She made the team as a defensive specialist, and it went on to finish second in the world.
At Bowdoin, Leon is able to offer advice to newer players—captain Clare Stansberry ’14 calls her a “baby captain”—because she knows the rules better than most other players. This is important in a game whose players are responsible for refereeing themselves. She also came to Bowdoin with a passion for the fundamentals of defense already ingrained. Mik Cooper ’14 noted that defense takes much longer for new players to learn than offense.
Leon was already familiar with Bowdoin and Chaos Theory when she began her college search. Her sister, Liz Leon ’12, captained the team during the first year it qualified for nationals. Leon acknowledges that meeting members of the team during a visit, compounded by her desire to go to college far from home, influenced her decision to come to Bowdoin.
Ultimate players generally play one of two loosely defined positions: handler and cutter. Handlers are responsible for most of the throwing while cutters attempt to free themselves from the defense and advance the disk. Leon, technically a cutter, excels at throwing the disk as well, providing her with the versatility to keep the offense flowing.
“Ana is usually a cutter, but she’s easily one of the best throwers on the team,” said Kate Powers ’17. “It’s not too common. It’s something that most people aspire to be. Few have as impressive handling skills.”
Powers also said that Leon is better at adjusting her throws under windy conditions than many other players.
Leon explained that her goal as a player is to become more versatile, and that she models her game after Phoebe Aron ’13, who, among other skills, was known for her ability to throw the disk far upfield.
Teams without cutters who can throw typically accompany long gains with underneath backwards passes to allow the handlers to regain control of the disk. Cutters such as Leon who can look upfield put increased pressure on defenses and allow their team to move the disk more quickly.
Leon’s teammates often describe her uncanny ability to get open regardless of the coverage. “Honestly I don’t know how she does it,” said Hannah LeBlanc ’16. “It’s pretty incredible. If I knew how to do it, I would be doing it myself.”
“It’s a lot about setting up your cuts,” Leon said. “You’re trying to get your girl to move her hips so you can swivel around her.”
Leon employs a similar technique on defense, staying on her girl’s hip and denying her the disk.
She explains how ultimate teams play a lot of “man” defense, while individual defenders prioritize taking a side of the field away from their girl when she gets the frisbee. This makes the next throw more predictable for an anticipatory defense. “Man” defense aims to keep the disk away from the offensive player but also to prevent them from getting into open space on the uncovered side of the opposing handler.
“You can watch her play and see that it’s just so intuitive for her—where to move, where to be—in a way that it isn’t for everyone else on the field,” LeBlanc said. “People can watch our games, not know anything about them and say ‘I just know that Ana’s dominating out there.’”
The sports editor of the Orient chooses the Athlete of the Week based on exemplary performance.

Athlete of the Week: Rachel Kennedy ’16

Field hockey’s Rachel Kennedy ’16 scored both goals in last Saturday’s 2-1 win over Amherst. A three-year starter, Kennedy tied Katie Riley ’14 for the team lead with 21 goals last year, and scored 15 as a first year. Her early three goals this season have further cemented her reputation as a feared scoring threat at the center forward position. Both Head Coach Nicky Pearson and captain Colleen Finnerty ’15 said a second year at the center forward position—where Pearson puts players with a knack for scoring—will benefit Kennedy further. Kennedy played on the wing during her first year on the team.
After several star seniors graduated last spring, Kennedy is the player with the most starts under her belt. Joining her at forward are Kimmy Ganong ’17 and Adrienne O’Donnell ’15, both first-time starters with whom Kennedy said she hopes to build further chemistry. Finnerty said she remembers the rapport between Kennedy and Riley as “instinctive,” noting that the two often assisted each other’s goals last season.
Taking over for last season’s coring threat Olivia King ’14 is Mettler Growney ’17, who will seek to provide some of the consistency of last year’s NCAA tournament MVP.
Of Kennedy’s three goals so far, two have been unassisted, with the Amherst game-winner coming off the stick of O’Donnell before Kennedy drove it home.
“She has the speed and the quickness to beat players, coupled with good ball handling,” said Pearson.
Her first goal against Amherst demonstrated her expert scoring ability. Kennedy beat two defenders and avoided a charging goalie before hitting the bottom-left corner of the net.Kennedy records a number of unassisted goals because of her impressive one-on-one play and athleticism, which she thinks comes from years of ice hockey.
Kennedy believes that she has been able to translate stick control from the ice to the turf.Finnerty, who is also a member of the women’s hockey team, believes there is a “grit” in hockey that translates as well to the field.
“When you see her take a pole right,” Finnerty said, “it’s not the prettiest sight but it gets the job done. Rachel doesn’t have the most finesse out of anyone out there but it’s her hard work that makes it work.”
Both women picked up field hockey sticks for the first time as freshmen in high school, and Finnerty thinks that this commitment to ice hockey caused them to miss out on the experience that comes from playing more consistently on field hockey club teams.
For her part, Kennedy noted that she has been working on taking the pole with more authority; she noted her tendency to go left more often.
Both players laughed about Kennedy’s continued attempt to master the reverse, a more difficult maneuver that a player to subtly break the rule that the ball can only touch one side of the stick and hit a low, fast shot, vaguely resembling a backhand.
Pearson said that the adjustmentsto the lineup have affected chemistry, as the new players attempt to learn Kennedy’s tendencies and she tries to learn their’s. Pearson praised Kennedy’s one-on-one defense, but admitted that there is still an emphasis on completing double-teams with players around her, either with Growney or one of the wings.
As the season progresses, Kennedy will likely settle further into her role as the team’s primary scorer, though Pearson said that she ultimately does not care who scores. Finnerty called Kennedy the leader of the forward line, and Pam Herter ’15 said that while she is more of a playmaker than a scorer, her impact on the game will not change.
“She’s matured as a player in terms of her decision making,” said Herter. “She makes [the forwards] a little faster. But the core of her game remains the same—very strong, very fast, unbelievable one-on-one skills. Every time she is on the field she is a scoring threat. It’s not pressure we put on her but it’s still sort of the reality of having her as a player.”

Athlete of the Week

September 12, 2014

Last year, Katie Doherty ’17 made an immediate impact on the volleyball team as a first year. She had a statistically explosive first season, appearing in 29 of the team’s 30 matches and grabbing 163 kills and 277 digs, good enough for second on the team in both categories.

At the start of her sophomore campaign, Doherty, who hails from Menlo Park, Calif., has not shown signs of letting up.

A graduate of Menlo Atherton High School, Doherty had an impressive high school career, playing for the varsity team all four years and helping it reach the California state semi-finals. She also competed in soccer and pole-vaulting during high school.

At Bowdoin’s first tournament of the season, the Endicott Invitational, Doherty helped the team win four straight matchups by averaging 2.47 kills and 4.20 digs per set—surpassing her averages of 1.85 kills and 3.1 digs per set from last season.

“We were looking to go undefeated for the weekend,” said Doherty on the team’s attitude going into the tournament. “We have a bitter taste from last year and we really want to go farther this year.”

After a 20-5 showing in the regular season last year, Bowdoin lost in the NESCAC finals to Williams and failed to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.

Doherty was strong throughout the Polar Bears’ first two matches—three-set victories over the Plymouth State University Panthers and the Roger Williams Hawks—but really came through in a dramatic five-set victory over a well-regarded squad from New York University (NYU).

Though Bowdoin jumped out to a two set lead, NYU fought back, taking the third set and narrowly forced a fifth by winning the fouth set 29-27.

In the decisive fifth, Doherty and fellow sophomores Erica Sklaver and Clare Geyer led the team to a 15-12 victory.

“Everyone on the court really believed that we were going to win the whole time,” Doherty said. “We have a really positive attitude and a really positive team and we were really excited to just play.”

Doherty finished the match with 15 kills and a team-leading 29 digs, 11 more digs than teammate Christy Jewett ’16, who had Bowdoin’s second-highest total in the match.

Later in the day Doherty and the rest of the Polar Bears beat Endicott College. After narrowly dropping the first game 25-22 the Polar Bears comfortably won the next three 25-18, 25-12, and 25-17, respectively. Doherty’s 19 total digs was nearly double that of the next-closest Polar Bear.

Doherty officially plays outside hitter, a position usually played on the line nearest the net on the left side. Despite playing in a position that is close to the net, she has a high number of digs—the third most in the NESCAC. Only Katie Kershaw of Amherst and Anna Brown of Hamilton have more digs this season, and both play positions—defensive specialist and libero respectively—that offer them more oppurtunities for digs.

Part of the reason Doherty has such a high number of digs for her position is because Bowdoin has changed formations this year, as detailed in the Orient’s article this week about the start of the volleyball season. Even though players rotate through a variety of different positions on the team, Doherty seems to have a knack for consistently coming up with the ball and getting it back over the net.

Doherty was named to the Endicott Invitational All-Tournament Team and was honored as the NESCAC Women’s Volleyball Player of the Week.

After domination at the Endicott Invitational, Doherty Doherty helped the Polar Bears to a convinving win in their home opener against the University of New England on Tuesday. The reigning Player of the Week led the team with 15 digs while also racking up seven kills, good for the second most on the team.

Doherty said she was surprised by the recent slew of accolades.

“I was honestly really surprised,” she said. “I was expecting Christy [Jewett] or Erica [Sklaver] to get something like [the NESCAC Player of the Week award]. I wouldn’t really have expected myself to but it was nice to be recognized. It could have been any of my team members.”

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