Lily Ramin
Number of articles: 13First article: October 25, 2013
Latest article: September 26, 2014
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463 participate in Common Good Day
Four hundred and eight Bowdoin students, 20 prospective students and 35 faculty, staff, alumni and family members participated in the College’s 16th annual Common Good Day last Saturday.
Participants worked on 50 community service projects around midcoast Maine, including coastal cleanup, trail work, painting and indoor cleaning, among others.Registration was smoother this year than in the past, though the trips filled up just as quickly as ever.
“Groups take up the majority of the spots, and there are usually enough spots for individuals,” said Andrew Lardie, associate director for service and leadership at the McKeen Center for the Common Good.
For the past few years, Common Good Day and Explore Bowdoin—an overnight program for prospective students—have coincided, and this year 20 prospective students took part in the Bowdoin tradition.
“[Associate Dean of Admissions] Claudia Marroquin has been really good about informing prospies about the project possibilities and then matching them up,” said Lardie.
Feedback from Common Good Day participants has been largely positive. Eighty-six percent of participants found their experience either “very positive” or “positive.”
Tory Rusch ’15, a member of the softball team, worked on a project at a local Brunswick retirement home with her teammates. Saturday marked Rusch’s third time participating in Common Good Day.
“We all get together, have some team bonding and help out the community at the same time,” said Rusch.The project entailed building a bocce court and painting doors and walls inside the retirement home.
“[It was especially rewarding] going to the retirement home and getting to interact with the residents that actually live there,” said Rusch. “We’d paint their doors and sit and chat—it was nice to get to see who you were helping.”
Simon Close ’17 also spoke highly of his Common Good Day experience. Close and five fellow residents of Quinby House went to the Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust, where they created a pathway on a muddy area of a hiking trail.“It was really cool to see the finished product of what our service had done, and it was a good workout too,” said Close. “It was great to see that we made a difference and helped out.”
Like Rusch, Close said he found his Common Good Day project to be rewarding.
“I’m really proud to be a Bowdoin student if this is something that Bowdoin presents itself as doing,” he said.The McKeen Center hopes that Common Good Day will inspire students to make long-term service commitments, “either with the same organization they worked with on Common Good Day or something related or unrelated,” said Lardie.
“When we talk with students who are in some of our more specific programs, Alternative [Spring] Break for instance, many of their first experiences with community service were with Common Good Day, so we know that sometimes it is a gateway,” he said.
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Chaos Theory advances to Nationals for third straight year
Correction, May 2, 1 p.m.: An earlier version of this article stated that this will be Chaos Theory's second straight appearence at the national championship. It will be their third.
Winning five of its six games in the USA Ultimate D-III Regionals Championships this weekend at Williams, the women’s ultimate Frisbee team, Chaos Theory, secured a spot in the national D-III College Championships. The team will travel to Westerville, Ohio, on May 17 to defend its title.
On Saturday, in the pool play round of the tournament, Chaos Theory played Wellesley, Brandeis and Smith.
“Smith was the toughest game,” said Kate Powers ’17.
“They were a really good team,” agreed captain Clare Stansberry ’14. “They had a couple of really strong handlers, but we were able to shut them down. That was really key.”
Bowdoin beat Smith 13-7 after beating Brandeis 15-6 and Wellesley 15-8 earlier in the day.
On Sunday, Chaos played Bates in its first game of the championship round of the tournament, winning 15-5. The players remarked that Bates had great spirit and sportsmanship.
“A big part of Frisbee, which I think really sets us apart from a lot of other sports, is this whole idea of ‘spirit of the game,’” said Stansberry. “Part of what ultimate is about is the love of the game and promoting love of the game and good sportsmanship. Bates was hands down the most spirited team we played all weekend. They were cheering for us in our other games and we were cheering for them.”
After playing Bates, Chaos Theory played Williams and lost 10-9. They won their third and final game against Smith decisively with a 14-4 score, taking second place in the tournament.Strong team play and key players contributed to the team’s success.
“I would say an underappreciated athlete on campus is Ana Leon [’16],” said Stansberry. “She played for the USA world team for U-19. She’s a key movement piece on the field. She can just always get discs.”
Powers agreed with Stansberry.
“She’s one of those players who makes everyone else better when she is on the field. She has great reads and knows really well how to work with other people,” she said.
Meanwhile, the men’s ultimate team, Stoned Clown, competed in its own D-III Regionals Tournament at Amherst. Clown posted a 4-3 record at the tournament and was one win away from qualifying for nationals.
In the pool play round, Stoned Clown recorded a 3-1 record, with its one loss coming to Bentley, 12-8 in its first game.
“We came out really slow in the first half, and they were up 7-2 at halftime,” said Sam Shapiro ’14. “We played a lot better in the second half, though. We scored more points than them in the second half. The game got time capped, so it was only played to 12.”
On Saturday Bowdoin beat Merrimack 13-6, and defeated Worcester Polytechnic by a score of 13-7.
The following morning, Clown played Middlebury in a close match, winning 9-7.
“It was probably one of the best games we played all weekend,” said Shapiro.
Later in the day, Stoned Clown had three games in the bracket round of the tournament. The team lost 15-7 to Bryant, before rebounding quickly to beat Amherst 15-9.
“They went up on us early, 2-0, but from there we pretty much steamrolled them. We just played with a ton of energy and a ton of fire,” said Shapiro.
In its final game of the tournament, fighting for the third and final spot to nationals, Stoned Clown lost to Brandeis.
“That game was really tight through the first half,” said Shapiro. “They took half on us 8-6, so we were right in it. In the second half we just began to get more tired than they were, basically.”
The tournament marked the end of Stoned Clown’s season.
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Women's tennis beats Colby and Bates in the same day
After suffering two close losses last weekend against Amherst and Emory at home, the women’s tennis team (12-4 overall, 5-1 NESCAC) topped Colby and Bates in a doubleheader last Wednesday. Tomorrow, they will travel to Middlebury for their penultimate regular season match of the year.
On Wednesday night, the Polar Bears, who were recently ranked No. 7 in the nation, played Bates in Lewiston, crushing them with a score of 8-1.
The Polar Bears won two out of their three doubles matches and swept singles.Earlier that afternoon, they dominated against Colby, defeating the Mules in all nine of their matches.
Tiffany Cheng ’16 did not drop a single game in a shutout against the No. 1 singles, and in No. 3 doubles game with partner Pilar Giffenig ’17.
Strong doubles play has been key to the team’s success this season.
“We’ve been doing well in our doubles,” said Emma Chow ’15. “I know compared to years past, we used to struggle with it, and it kind of turned into a habit where we would come out of doubles down 2-1 or 3-0. Whenever you’re down you have to be mentally resilient, but being able to come out on top...gives us confidence heading into singles.”
Captain Kate Winingham ’14 and Samantha Stalder ’17 are undefeated this year as a doubles team.“[Winingham]’s a really good doubles player and she’s been helping me a lot,” said Stalder. “She’s a great mentor, friend and supporter.”
On April 13, the Polar Bears faced No. 2 Emory in a morning match-up at home, which Emory won 5-4.
After the doubles, Bowdoin led with wins from the duo of Winingham and Stalder, and Giffenig and Cheng.
Emory took four of the six singles matches. The two victories for Bowdoin came from Emma Lewis ’15 at No. 5 and Joulia Likhanskaia ’17 at No. 3, both in three-set wins.
“We ended up losing 5-4. Obviously we would’ve liked to have pulled up another single to win, but it was still a really good match,” said Chow.
“People competed well, [with] lots of good energy,” she added. “We always talk about competing, and that these big matches don’t come down to shots and skill, they come down to your heart and how well you’re going to compete.”
Last Friday the team lost to Amherst 6-3. The Polar Bears won two of the three doubles matches with wins from the same two pairings as on Sunday. However, they struggled with singles, with just one win coming from Joulia Likhanskaia ’17.
“It was really encouraging to see how well the team did rebound, so we’ll definitely build off of that as we head into this weekend,” Chow said.
Tomorrow, the team will hit the road to play Middlebury (10-4 overall 4-1 NESCAC) at 1 p.m.The team said they have already begun mentally preparing for the NESCAC tournament, which Bowdoin is hosting in two weeks.
“We’re practicing the way we need to play to beat the best teams,” said Stalder. “We have them in mind when we’re practicing. We just have to stay focused and keep working hard. We’ve been doing all the right things so far, we’re on the right track, we just have to keep working at it and really commit to each of our games.”
Chow agreed with Stalder.
“We’re in the position that we want to be in,” she said. “We’ve beaten all the teams that we need to beat so far. We’re definitely more optimistic than ever, especially with our doubles performance. It’s great to be able to come out on top of these really great teams after doubles—it gives us a lot of confidence.”
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Women’s lax sneaks past Bates to reach .500
The women’s lacrosse team had a roller coaster ride of a week, allowing four goals in the final three minutes to lose at Trinity 9-8 last Saturday, and then holding Bates scoreless after halftime at home Wednesday night for a thrilling 6-5 overtime victory. The team is now 4-4 overall and 2-4 in NESCAC play.
On Wednesday, the women trailed the Bobcats 5-1 at halftime after an anemic offensive performance in the first half. But the Polar Bears locked down on defense and scored four second half goals to send the game to an extra period, where Dana White ’15 scored with 3:01 left on the clock to secure the win.
Betsy Sachs ’14 led the squad with three goals. White, Jordan Smith ’14 and Lindsey Picard ’16 all scored for the Polar Bears, as well. Goalie Isabel Sippel ’15 saved 11 of 16 shots.
Despite Trinity stunning Bowdoin with four goals in the last 2:44 of last Saturday’s game, the Polar Bears played strong lacrosse for most of the day.
“Particularly at the very beginning of the game, we were doing a great job of not turning the ball over,” said Sachs. “We didn’t have a turnover until there were ten minutes left in the first half.”
Head Coach Elizabeth Grote agreed that the team played well for most of the day.
“We controlled the pace of the game,” said Grote. “Our offense got good possessions and quality opportunities on goal. Offensively, I thought we played a very solid game. Trinity is a team that likes to drive, and we were able to stop that for the majority of the game.”
Picard led the team with three goals against the Bantams. Sachs and Smith each contributed two goals of their own.
The Bantams led 4-3 after the first half. With 5:46 remaining in the second half, Bowdoin had risen to an 8-5 lead.
“We played really strong team defense as a whole throughout the entire game,” said Sachs. “Our 1-v-1 defense was looking awesome, and unfortunately they were calling a lot of free position shots, which [Trinity] was able to capitalize on.”
In the final few minutes, Trinity scored multiple timely goals to surmount a comeback win. Trinity’s Caroline Hayes scored the game-winning goal with 24 seconds remaining.
“It’s tough to lose a game like that, but at the same time our team played very well collectively,” said Grote. “We came off a tough loss to Middlebury and had some really great practices during the week, and a lot of good focus.”
The loss was a particularly hard one to take, as Trinity 7-1 (4-1 NESCAC) is among the conference’s elite teams.
“The NESCAC competition overall is tremendous. Everybody’s beating everybody,” said Grote.“We keep seeing scores that are one or two games, and it doesn’t matter who’s playing who. So every game we go out there, and we have to expect that the other teams are playing their best, and that we play our best. It’s a tough conference,” she added.
Sachs agreed on the high level of competition.
“[Trinity] is always a really strong team. [They’re] very talented and tall. They’re intimidating to play against, but I don’t think that we let that stop us,” she said.
The Polar Bears will host Connecticut College on Saturday at noon. They play Colby in Waterville on April 8.
“I’d like to see our team play with a lot of consistency and bring a lot of passion to the field,” said Grote. “I think that our team has been doing a good job of lifting each other and will continue to do that.”
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Women’s basketball advances to semifinals
The women’s basketball team pummeled Williams 71-46 in its NESCAC quarterfinal game, advancing to play Amherst in the semifinals at Tufts tomorrow. On Sunday, the winner will play the victor of Trinity-Tufts.
“We had a phenomenal start to the game,” said Head Coach Adrienne Shibles. “We really came out aggressive. Our defense was much better this time around, and we worked really hard on it in practice all week. I thought that made the biggest difference: our defensive intensity to start. It really generated our offense.”
Eight minutes into the game, the Polar Bears had a 21-2 lead. By halftime, they led the Ephs 43-15.
“We had great offensive production from everyone on the team, and we had a team defensive mentality that really shut them down,” said captain Sara Binkhorst ’15.
Binkhorst scored a game-high 22 points, seven assists and two steals.
Captain Megan Phelps ’15 spoke highly of Binkhorst’s game.
“Sara Binkhorst had key contributions—not only with her play but with her leadership and intensity,” Phelps wrote in an email to the Orient.
“[Binkhorst] was just a spark plug for us on both ends of the court,” added Shibles. “I thought she had her best game of the year. She’s an important leader for our team, and really sets the tone on both ends of the court.”
Shannon Brady ’16 added 10 points, six rebounds and two blocks, while Phelps scored 12 points and pulled down eight rebounds and Siena Mitman ’15 contributed ten points and six boards.
Despite the score, the two teams appeared to be evenly matched on paper. Both teams entered the game with 20-4 records, and one of Bowdoin’s four regular season losses was a 69-55 defeat to the Ephs in January.
“Even though they’re ranked sixth in the conference, they’re ranked above us in the region and in the nation,” said Shibles. “They’re a super talented team. Our intensity and readiness made a big difference in the outcome of the game this time around.”
Bowdoin’s strong defense prevailed in stopping Williams.
“I think Kirsten Prue [’14] is really under-recognized,” said Shibles. “She guarded [Ellen Cook] for Williams, who’s a phenomenal player. She really shut her down. I think she had six or seven points.“
With the win, Bowdoin now has a 22-0 all-time record at home NESCAC tournament games.
“Morrell is amazing, and I’m sure it’s an intimidating place to play,” wrote Phelps. “We are very lucky to have an amazing fan base both from the school and surrounding community. I also think there’s definitely some extra pride when you play on your home court—it definitely fires us up.”Binkhorst cited the program’s history as another source of motivation.
“Bowdoin women’s basketball has a great tradition of excellence,” she said. “Going into these games knowing the history behind them, you just play with a lot of pride. You play for your program, and for all the players who have played here in the past.”
Shibles mentioned the Polar Bears had a secret weapon working in their favor, as well.
“[Director of Counseling Services] Bernie Hershberger was really helpful with mental preparation,” she said. “He did a visualization session with them the morning before the game. He’s always wonderful with helping to prepare the team for our games.”
Following the Tufts-Trinity matchup at 2 p.m., Bowdoin will play Amherst at 4 p.m.“[Amherst plays] amazing defense,” said Shibles. “They’re a tough, physical team. They shoot exceptionally well from the outside, yet they have good interior players, and they have some players back that have been injured.”
“We’re expecting a tough game against them, but we’re really excited about this opportunity to see them again. It’s always great to be able to face the opponents that we’ve lost to in the regular season. So it was great to see Williams again, and now we’re really excited about another chance to face off with Amherst,” she added.
Bowdoin suffered their first home loss of the season at the hands of Amherst in early February. The team was ahead for a combined 10 minutes in the 65-57 battle, but could not rebound after losing the lead with 11 minutes left in the game. The Polar Bears were met with a balanced attack from the Lady Jeffs, who had five players in double digits compared to Bowdoin’s one. Amherst also showed impressive depth from their bench, who contributed 26 points compared to the Polar Bears’ 15. Bowdoin will seek revenge against the Jeffs, who beat them in the NESCAC semifinals last year.
The team hopes to carry their recent momentum into tomorrow’s game.
“The team’s just really coming together right now; we’re really playing great team basketball,” said Binkhorst. “I think moving forward, if we just continue that, it’s going to be really hard for teams to stop all of us. Everyone’s being a threat and contributing.”
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Women's basketball to host NESCAC quarterfinal against Williams
The women’s basketball team beat Bates 77-65 on last Friday and lost to Tufts 92-55 on Saturday in two away games, finishing the regular season with a 20-4 (7-3 NESCAC) record. Tomorrow the team will face Williams at home in a NESCAC quarterfinal matchup.
With the victory over Bates, Bowdoin secured the third seed in the NESCAC tournament.
“Bates has one of the best players in the league, Meredith Kelly,” said Head Coach Adrienne Shibles. “One of the challenges was trying to control her ability to get to the rim and shoot from the outside. We struggled a bit with that in the first half, but did a much better job in the second half.”
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Swimming and diving teams sweep at Colby
The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams swept Colby last Saturday in a dual meet. The men’s team won by a score of 205-119, and the women’s team 187-142.
“[Colby was] stronger than we thought they’d be on paper,” said Head Coach Brad Burnham. “They swam really well in many events, [but] we just had more people who could score some points.”
On the men’s side, John Lagasse ’16 won the 50-yard breaststroke (28.63), Logan House ’17 won the 50-yard butterfly (23.98), and Tim Long ’17 won two freestyle events, the 500 (5:51.77) and the 1,000 (10:08.96). Kevin Koh ’16 won the 100-yard butterfly (52.37) and Chris Granata ’14 took the 200-yard butterfly (56.12).
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Men’s hockey No. 5 in NESCAC standings
Since the end of fall semester, the men’s hockey team has won four of its past five games and improved to a 9-4-2 record (5-4-1 NESCAC), and is now approaching an important weekend with games against Middlebury and Williams. The team hopes to maintain its momentum after a 3-2 victory over Wesleyan on January 18.
Head Coach Terry Meagher described the win as “a complete game for us and a hard fought victory.”
Wesleyan led 2-0 after the first period, but Bowdoin began to overcome this deficit when Colin Downey ’14 scored in the second period on a power-play goal. Captain Harry Matheson ’14 contributed two assists in the win.
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Men’s hockey dominates after Colby loss
The men’s hockey team has won four of its past five games, including Head Coach Terry Meagher’s 500th career victory, to build momentum for its two home games against Connecticut College and Tufts this weekend.
The Polar Bears most recently came away with a 5-1 victory over UMass-Dartmouth on December 1, a team that Meagher described as “traditionally one of the strongest teams in Division III.”
Matt Rubinoff ’16 contributed two goals and an assist to the victory.
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NESCAC Coach of the Year Marissa O'Neil '05 enters fourth season with high hopes
Head Coach of the women’s hockey team, Marissa O’Neil ’05, began playing hockey at age four. She grew up in Manchester, New Hampshire, where she practiced on the rink in her back yard. She was always the only girl on her hockey teams until she was 16.
She continued playing hockey in high school. After attending Kimball Union Academy in Meriden, New Hampshire, she applied and came to Bowdoin as a student athlete, playing both ice and field hockey. She was coached by current Head Coach Nicky Pearson in field hockey. O’Neil received several athletic awards while at Bowdoin. For field hockey, she received the Rookie of the Year award in 2001, the NESCAC Player of the Year award in 2003, a First Team All-American, and was a three-time First Team All-NESCAC selection. As an ice hockey player, she was named to the 2003 NCAA Division III All-Tournament team, and was a three-time All-NESCAC honoree.
Additionally, she received the Lucy L. Shulman Award in 2005, which is given to the most outstanding female athlete of the year.
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Women’s rugby moves on to Sweet 16
The women’s rugby team defeated the College of the Holy Cross in a decisive 54-7 victory last Saturday in the American College Rugby Association (ACRA) Round of 32.
Head Coach MaryBeth Mathews said that that Saturday’s victory was a hard fought team effort.
“It was a total team win,” said Mathews. “They played very well and continue to play better each week. That was terrific to come away with such a convincing win, and Holy Cross was a tough team. Despite the score, they played all 80 minutes. They never gave up. So our team had to fight for every point that they scored.”
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Bowdoin Green Athletes take on EPA Game Day Challenge
Bowdoin Green Athletics (BGA) hosted the College’s second annual Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Game Day Challenge during this weekend’s football game against Wesleyan. One hundred and seventy-six pounds of recyclables and 102 pounds of food waste for the pig farm were recovered at the event.
According to the EPA’s website, “during the challenge, colleges and universities implement waste reduction programs during home football games. Schools track and report waste reductions and disposal data that is used to rank the schools.”
Alex Tougas ’14, one of the founders of BGA, created the club in 2012.“Because athletics is a large part of the College, I was interested in getting people involved, whether they be athletes or not, in greening the athletic operations of the College,” said Tougas.
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Volleyball remains undefeated at home
The volleyball team successfully extended its winning streak to 12 games after defeating Wesleyan and Trinity this past weekend. It now boasts an 18-4 record (7-1 NESCAC).
Last Friday’s game against Wesleyan was a hard fought win—the Polar Bears came back from a 2-1 deficit to defeat the Cardinals 3-2 (24-26, 25-7, 22-25, 25-11, 15-11).
“They came out with a lot more fire than we were anticipating, because in the past Wesleyan hasn’t really been that strong of a competitor in the NESCAC,” said captain Ellie Brennan ’14.