Noah Safian
Number of articles: 14First article: September 20, 2013
Latest article: September 12, 2014
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Athlete of the Week: Katie Doherty ’17
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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Track and field tunes up for Maine Meet, Aloha Relays
The men’s and women’s track team competed at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) in a non-scoring meet for the second consecutive weekend as they tune up in preparation for vital upcoming meets. This weekend the men travel to Colby for the Maine State Meet, while the women will host the Aloha Relays.
The following weekend, both teams will travel to Waterville to compete in the NESCAC Championship. Athletes who qualify will then go on to compete in the New England D-III Championship, Open New Englands, the ECAC Championship, and finally the NCAA Championship.
One Bowdoin athlete with a considerable chance to make it to Nationals is captain Coby Horowitz ’14, who specializes in the one-mile and 1500 meter (.93 mile) runs. Coming off an indoor season where he broke the D-III mile record and then took the national title at the D-III Tournament, Horowitz has already transitioned well to the outdoor season.
Last weekend, facing over a dozen D-I runners at UNH, Horowitz again won the 1500 event, clocking in at 3:53.37. However, it was only the 11th-best time this season in D-III, which means he will have tough competition if he gets to defend the national title he won last season. Horowitz was named last week’s NESCAC Track Performer of the Week, and said he was optimistic about the prospects of the team for the rest of the season.
“The transition from indoor to outdoor can be pretty tough due to the weather we get in our early season meets, but everyone has handled it well so far and we’re looking strong heading into the championship season,” said Horowitz.
He also thought it was “great to race D-I competition as they provide a good opportunity to hit qualifying times.”
But Horowitz was not the only Bowdoin athlete to best D-I competition last Sunday, as Erin Silva ’15 turned in a stellar performance on pole vault, clearing 11-11.75 to take first. Junior Emily Clark’s 1:07.42 time in the 400-meter hurdle and sophomore Katie Krupp’s 36-08 triple jump were good for second in their respective events, while Jacob Ellis ’16 took home first in the 800-meter.
As both teams prepare for their upcoming meets, Horowitz voiced his expectations for the team.
“We’re hoping to be one of the top teams at the state meet and NESCACs; we’re hoping for some freezing rain or snow to give us an extra edge in the upcoming meets since Bates’ and Tufts’ top guys have been known to skip meets to watch reruns of ‘Friends’ at the first signs of precipitation.”
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Women’s tennis smokes Camels
The No. 7 women’s tennis team dominated the Connecticut College Camels this past weekend, taking all nine matches in New London, Conn. without dropping a single set.
Senior Kate Winingham led in the No. 1 slot, taking down Connecticut College’s Charlotte Marcoux 6-2, 6-1. Though it was her first time in the top singles slot since March 17, it was her third consecutive straight-set victory. The captain has now won six of her last seven matches, with the only loss a 10-7 super-tiebreaker defeat at Trinity on March 19.
Joulia Likhanskaia ’17 also dominated her opponent, dropping only two games en route to a 6-2, 6-0 win. The first year has hit the ground running at Bowdoin—she holds a 14-2 record so far this year.
“It’s definitely a lot different playing here. In college it’s more of a team sport,” Likhanskaia said. “In juniors [competitive tennis for high-schoolers] you don’t have all of your teammates supporting you. It’s just you by yourself on the court. Here you work for the team.”
One of Likhanstaia’s two losses came last fall against Middlebury’s Ria Gerger, in only her third college match. She suffered her second a few weeks ago to Tufts’s Connor Calabro. She had dominated the No. 3 spot on the ladder until this past weekend, when she was moved up to No. 2.
Three other first years grabbed points in singles matches for the young and talented Polar Bears. Kyra Silitch (6-0, 6-0), Samantha Stalder (6-0, 6-0) and Pilar Giffenig (7-6(3), 6-1) all came out winners.
The three doubles matches also went Bowdoin’s way, with senior Emma Lewis teaming up with Likhanskaia to take an 8-0. Stalder combined with Winingham and Giffenig with Tiffany Cheng ’16 for victories in the remaining two doubles matches.
The Polar Bears hope to follow their dominant performance with a strong outing this weekend against two of the toughest opponents they will face all year, No. 3 Emory and No. 4 Amherst. The team faces Amherst at 3:30 this afternoon in its home opener, weather permitting. They hope to capitalize on weather conditions unfamiliar to Emory to pull off an upset on Sunday at 9:30 a.m.
A win Friday against the talented Lady Jeffs would be hugely important, as it would move Bowdoin to 4-0 in the NESCAC and give the team a legitimate shot at the division title. Currently, the Polar Bears stand at 10-2, with the team’s only losses coming to west coast powerhouses No. 5 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and No. 6 Pomona-Pitzer.
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No. 12 men’s tennis convicts No. 24 Brandeis Judges
This past Saturday, the No. 12 men’s tennis team played its first match since returning from its Spring Break trip to California, defeating No. 24 Brandeis 6-2 in Waltham, Mass.
“The team came out intense and focused,” said Hugh Mo ’17. “Not taking them lightly and just coming out and playing our best was key.”
And so the Polar Bears did, accomplishing one of their goals for the match early on by winning two of three doubles matches, though the No. 1 doubles team did fall.
As the match continued on to singles, Bowdoin continued to dominate. Noah Bragg ’15 started the team off well at No. 1 singles, taking down the Judge’s top player Michael Arguello 6-2, 6-2. Additional straight set victories from No. 3 Sam King ’14 (6-4, 6-3), No. 4 Chris Lord ’14 (6-2, 6-4), and No. 6 Chase Savage ’16 (6-0, 6-4) sealed the Bowdoin victory.
No. 5 Kyle Wolstencroft ’15 was unable to finish his match because the win had already been assured and another team was waiting to play, but Bowdoin Head Coach Conor Smith felt said he would have came out on top.
“I feel confident that if they were gonna play it out, he would have won,” said Smith. “But he understood that the match had been decided.”
The Polar Bears got another great performance out of King, who was named NESCAC Player of the Week three weeks ago after a stellar series of matches in California, highlighted by a key day in which he won both his singles and doubles matches (with partner Wolstencroft) against Pomona-Pitzer. Those two points were significant—Bowdoin pulled out a 5-3 victory over a team now only one spot behind them in the national rankings.
“[King] is one of those guys that really takes the idea of getting better to heart,” said Smith. “He doesn’t just say that and go through the motions, he really works hard the whole practice or match. Mentally, he just found the right energy level to compete at.”
This weekend, the Polar Bears hit the road again, traveling to MIT tomorrow and then Connecticut College on Sunday. The team will finally host its first home match of the year on April 13, when No. 4 Amherst will make the journey up to Brunswick in a hotly anticipated NESCAC matchup.
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Fifth in NESCAC best-ever finish for men’s swimming
The men’s swimming team faced many challenges while hosting the NESCAC championship last weekend but at the end of a tough three days, Bowdoin came out with a best-ever fifth-place finish, setting half a dozen school records in the process.
Ryan Kulesza ’15 set new school marks in the 200 IM, the 400 IM, and his 200 leg of the 800 free relay, which as a relay broke the school record that had been in place since 1992. Tim Long ’17 broke a pair of 20-year-old records in the 500 and 100 freestyles, and Logan House ’17 set a new school mark in the 100 butterfly.
While the top few teams jumped out to early leads and held on, Greason Pool was the scene of a tense battle between the Polar Bears and the Bates Bobcats for the middle-of-the-pack finishes. After the first day of swimming, the hosts were in sixth place with 321.5 points, some 27.5 points behind Bates and over 300 behind leader and eventual champion Williams. Even after the second day came to a close, Bowdoin still trailed its fierce rival by nearly 70 points.
But when the third and final day came to an end, Bowdoin finished with 777.5 points, in fifth and a mere half-point over Bates. It was easily the closest finish in the contest, with the next closest being a 11.5-point margin of Colby over Wesleyan.
The Bowdoin-Bates battle went back and forth over the course of three days, with the hosts nearly jumping to a significant lead early Saturday night. However, a relay team was disqualified due to a false start when one Bowdoin racer left .07 seconds before his teammate touched the wall.
Though it took the electronic timing system to confirm, the coaching staff knew immediately the team would be in trouble. Even though the relay team performed well, the 48 points it would have earned for Bowdoin were never counted. It was a huge point swing, letting Bates maintain its lead into day three.
“A lot of teams might have just written it off and felt like they were going to get sixth, but the guys just did a great job fighting back and scoring every point they could,” said Head Coach Brad Burnham. “That night was one of the best sessions they ever had. They woke up Sunday morning tired but got themselves back into finals in a lot of great scoring positions.”
In the end, the race came down the final relay, with Bowdoin placing just high enough relative to Bates to snatch the fifth spot from the Bobcats. As Burnham was happy to point out, “We somehow found a way to claw back up so relays could finish it off.”
“We set a new school record in the 800 meter free relay and we wouldn’t have done that unless we were right next to Bates,” added Burnham.
Burnham capped off his 13th year as head coach with his second fifth-place NESCAC finish—the best in school history—in three years. But he said he still wants more.
“Even when you beat another team, or swim some fast times, you can always think of places to improve, and after the results its just about getting on to those things,” advised Burnham.Senior distance swimmer Alex Tougas was delighted with the team’s performance and the way they came together to overcome Bates.
“It was amazing to have beaten Bates by a half point and to have done well individually,” he said. “As a senior, I could not have asked for a better culmination to my swimming career. This team was an awesome group of guys. They are great swimmers and lifelong friends."
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No. 19 men’s basketball to play No. 3 Amherst at home tomorrow
Over a month ago, in the midst of its season-opening 12-game winning streak, the men’s basketball team handily beat Colby (8-8 overall, 1-4 NESCAC) by 18 points at home in an out-of-conference matchup. Last Saturday’s rematch was much closer. With a second place position in the NESCAC on the line, the Polar Bears narrowly edged the Mules 64-59 in Morrell Gymnasium to improve to 15-1 on the season (4-1 NESCAC).
After raining down six threes and scoring 28 points on only 14 shots in the teams’ first meeting, Andrew Madlinger ’14 was locked down by the Colby defense, which only allowed him to take seven shots the entire game.
With Madlinger kept in check, the No. 22 Polar Bears were still able to take a 35-28 lead going into halftime with the help of the frontcourt duo of juniors John Swords and Keegan Pieri.
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Many track & field athletes PR at home meet
This past Saturday, the men’s and women’s track teams hosted their third consecutive meet. The men easily took first place while the women finished as runner-ups for the second consecutive week.
MenThe men came out on top against the tough competition of Tufts, Colby, University of Southern Maine (USM), Coast Guard and St. Joseph’s. They took first place with 174 points, beating second-place Tufts by 17 and third-place Coast Guard by an even 40.
Senior captains Sam Seekins and Coby Horowitz led the team by combining for 30 points. 20 of those came from Horowitz, who won both the 1000-meter and one-mile events. The All-American also won the mile run last weekend, but this week switched his second event from the 3000-meter run to the 1000. Even though he ran the mile first, he said the new race may have been the reason for his mile being about 10 seconds slower this week, up from 4:11 to 4:21.
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Women’s soccer eliminated from NCAA tournament
Though the women’s soccer team captured its first NCAA D-III Tournament win since 1999 this past Saturday, it was eliminated from the competition on Sunday after falling 7-0 to regional host Montclair State.
The Polar Bears finished their regular season seeded third in the conference at 11-2-1 (7-2-1 NESCAC) but lost to Tufts in the NESCAC quarterfinals. However, the team’s season continued two weeks later after earning an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.
Bowdoin drew Christopher Newport University, which boasted a 14-3-2 record, on Saturday for its first-round matchup. The game was close from the start, with both sides fighting to take a first-half lead. The Polar Bears very nearly took the lead 15 minutes in, as winger Abby Einwag ’15 let a shot rip from the left of the goal, forcing CNU goalkeeper Haley Casanova to make a diving stop.
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Field hockey begins NCAA tournament play tomorrow
This weekend the field hockey team will take the long bus ride down to New Jersey for its second-round NCAA D-III tournament game. Though they received an at-large bid to the tournament, the Polar Bears were still seeded high enough to receive a first-round bye, and tomorrow they will take on New Paltz State, which defeated William Smith on Wednesday.
Bowdoin hopes to rebound from a tough loss in the NESCAC finals to the national No. 3 Middlebury, after defeating Tufts in the semifinals. Avenging a 1-0 loss to Tufts in the team’s final regular season game two weeks earlier, Bowdoin put together an impressive 4-2 victory against the Jumbos last Saturday.
The team started out strong, putting pressure on Tufts goalie Brianna Keenan. After forward Emily Simonton ’15 blasted two on-goal shots against Keenan, Colleen Finnerty ’15 fired a shot into the lower left corner, giving Bowdoin the lead 22 minutes into the game. The assist went to Kelsey Mullaney ’16, her first of the season. The Jumbos had one good chance to tie it up before the half ended, but goalie Hannah Gartner ’15 was able to make the save.
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Field hockey onto semis after trouncing Trinity
Coming off of only its second loss of the season at Tufts, the field hockey team handled Trinity easily in the first round of the NESCAC tournament last Saturday, earning a 6-1 victory over the Bantams.
Earlier in the year in Hartford, it took a double-overtime goal by Colleen Finnerty ’15 give the Polar Bears a 2-1 win. Bantam keeper Sophie Fitzpatrick made 13 saves to keep her team in the game, but could not prevent the game-winning shot by Finnerty in the 92nd minute of the match.
This time around, the game-winning goal came much earlier in the contest. Bowdoin took the lead less than two minutes into the game, as captain Katie Riley ’14 opened her extraordinary performance by tucking home a rebound to put the Polar Bears up 1-0. Less than eight minutes later, Riley scored her second of the afternoon, and the first of two assisted by Rachel Kennedy ’16. It would prove to be the winning score, as Trinity was once again limited to a single goal.
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Women’s soccer splits weekend matches
The women’s soccer team entered Homecoming Weekend on a tear, having won four straight games after losing 2-1 to Middlebury on September 21. Three of the wins came against out-of-conference opponents, including University of New England (UNE), University of Southern Maine (USM), and Brandeis. The team beat Brandeis—ranked 17th nationally—and the other two teams with a combined score of 14-0. Then, on October 5th, the team traveled to previously-undefeated Trinity and netted a 3-0 win that brought Bowdoin to a No. 20 national ranking.
This past weekend, the team competed against Hamilton on Saturday and Williams on Sunday. Hamilton entered the clash 3-2-2 (1-2-2 in the NESCAC) against the 7-1-1 (3-1-1 in the NESCAC) Bowdoin team. However, the Continentals threatened frequently during the opening half, drawing six first-half saves out of net-minder Bridget McCarthy ’16. But none of Hamilton’s nine, nor Bowdoin’s three shots found the back of the net, so at halftime the score remained a scoreless tie.
At halftime, the Polar Bears looked to transition into an attacking mentality. Captain Molly Popilizio ’14 said that the team “talked about trying to defend less, and having more confidence getting forward. We adjusted and began to attack more in the second half and that is how we were able to find success.”
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Volleyball sweeps Mid-Coast Classic
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.
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Men’s and women’s XC teams place 3rd and 8th at USM
The men’s and women’s cross-country teams opened their seasons this past Saturday at the University of Southern Maine (USM) Invitational. Men’sCaptain Coby Horowitz ’14 and the rest of Bowdoin’s squad justified their preseason ranking of fifth in D-III, as they placed a close third in the competitive USM Invitational. Ahead of them by one point was Bates, with 85, ranked No. 7 nationally. The somewhat surprising victor was MIT with 37 points, ranked at No. 28 before the race.Bowdoin was missing its second-best runner and team leader, senior captain Sam Seekins, whom Head Coach Peter Slovenski elected to rest because of a relatively minor training injury. Last year, Seekins was runner-up at the New England Division III Championships.Horowitz won the meet by a second, finishing just ahead of Bates’ Mike Martin, whom he chased down over the last 200-meter stretch. Despite the close finish, the win was a continuance of Horowitz’s dominance, as he won his third straight regional race in the past year. The current captain finished his penultimate season on a high-note by winning the NESCAC and New England Division III Championships.For his efforts, Horowitz was named the Athlete of the Week for the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) and the NESCAC Cross Country Performer of the Week. -
Women’s soccer remains unbeaten
Four games into the 2013 season, the women’s soccer team has shown no signs of a hangover from a tough ending to last season. This year, the Polar Bears have come out swinging—and so far they’ve followed through. After tying Amherst and defeating University of Maine-Farmington and Bates this past week, they are 3-0-1 overall (2-0-1 NESCAC).
On Saturday, the women traveled to Amherst for a rematch of last year’s NESCAC semifinal. The game was tough and physical, with Amherst maintaining possession for much of the first half. But Bowdoin defended well, protected their 18-yard box, and starting keeper Bridget McCarthy ’16 only needed to make one save to keep Bowdoin level at half.
The second half was a different story. Bowdoin pushed forward on the wings and got in a couple of dangerous attacks. Though they threatened the Jeffs’ net, they could not convert a goal. Tied at the end of regulation, the game went into overtime. The Polar Bears fought Amherst to a standstill, totaling four shots in both overtime periods to Amherst’s five, and almost won the game when a loose ball fell to Abby Einwag ’15 at the top of the box. Unfortunately, her shot blazed just over the bar.