The Bowdoin Orient

After a demoralizing 7-0 defeat ti Montclair State in last year’s NCAA tournament ended its season, the women’s soccer team looks to build off of its recent regular season sucess this year and improve on last year’s finish.   

The team kicked off the 2014-15 campaign with a thrilling 2-1 overtime victory against Wesleyan on Saturday. The win marked the third year in a row that the Polar Bears have taken down Wesleyan during the regular season. The team will now turn its attention to its match against Amherst (1-0) tomorrow. 

“In the past two years that we played Wesleyan it has been a one goal difference, so we knew it was going to be rough from the start,” said Kiersten Turner ’16. “Also, that day in particular it was 88 degrees and humid, which we just weren’t very prepared for. So to come out with the win was huge.” 

The one and only Wesleyan goal came early, five minutes into the game, but the Polar Bears did not lose their composure. 

“When we went down early we never gave up and always felt like we were in the game,” said Maggie Godley ’16.

While giving up the early initial goal, the team’s defense stood strong the rest of the match, controlling the game and only allowing eight shots on goal. 

“Defensively they did an awesome job. They didn’t let anybody really get to Bridget other than that one goal that they scored,” said Turner.

After controlling the ball for most of the first half, the Bears finally broke through the Wesleyan defense when Amanda Kinneston ’15 put in a pass from Taylor Haist ’17. However, after scoring once on the Cardinal defense, Bowdoin could not seem to strike again despite 10 chances in the second half. 

“We were knocking on the door basically from the start. We had our opportunities and it was all about having the composure and finishing it.  I think that hopefully throughout the season that will improve with time and practice,” said Godley. 

“Prior to the game we had only one practice with our actual team and that was on the Friday before the game. So after the game we obviously knew that we had to work on more things like finishing when it really matters in regular time so that we don’t have to go into overtime,” said Turner. 

After a scoreless first overtime, Godley sent a corner kick into the box where Abby Hammerl ’17 headed in the game-winning goal. 

“I thought it was good to come in and make a point in our season that we expect to do well and we expect to be strong,” said Godley.

The team will face another formidable opponent in its match tomorrow against Amherst.“They are always very direct and they apply really high pressure. So in the middle, we need to keep it to two touches and up top we have to connect together and combine” said Turner. 

The game will be at 12 p.m. at Pickard Field. 

After losing a crucial NESCAC game to rival Tufts, the men’s lacrosse team traveled to Amherst, where it lost 13-6 in a NESCAC quarterfinal playoff game. The loss ends the team’s season and drops their record to 9-7. The Polar Bears ended the season on a five game losing streak.

The team’s loss against Tufts only three days earlier negatively impacted its playoff seed, giving them a tougher opening-game matchup.

“It’s definitely not how you want to end the season,” said Mac Caputi ’15. “I think if you look at the season as a whole we still did pretty well, so we can’t afford to dwell on all the bad stuff.”

In the Amherst game, the team fell behind by four goals, trailing 6-2 at halftime. However, the Polar Bears fought back at the start of the second half after Connor O’Toole ’14 netted two unassisted goals.

Amherst responded quickly, scoring one minute after O’Toole’s second goal.

“Every time we got a little momentum, they kind of stopped us with their own streak of a few goals” said Cody Dussault ’15.

Later in the third quarter, the Lord Jeffs pulled away from Bowdoin with four straight goals.“I feel like we got away from our systems—we stopped running our offenses the way we should,” said Brett Kujala ’17. “We had a lot smarter shots, but we just kind of got stupid in the last game.”

Bowdoin’s Franklin Reis ’14 added a goal late in the fourth quarter, but it was too little, too late as the Polar Bears fell 13-6.

Bowdoin defeated Amherst 17-15 at Howard Ryan Field in early March. That win was part of a season-opening three-game win streak, which at one point placed Bowdoin atop the NESCAC standings.

“Amherst kind of caught us on a bad day this year,” said Caputi. “What we were doing earlier on in the year—and just in general—is when we needed a big ground ball to keep a possession alive or put to an end to one of their possessions, we made the big play. We weren’t able to do that on Saturday.”

The Polar Bears will graduate six seniors this year, including starting defensemen Dylan Hannes and Ben Brewster.

“It’ll definitely be hard to replace a guy like Brewster, who makes big plays and influences the momentum of the game,” said Dussault. “We’re going to have to play a lot better now that we do not have an impact player like Brew.”

“Brewster is probably one of the best defensive players in the NESCAC, and he was a guy who could pick up five ground balls a game, force three or four turnovers a game, and just shadow the best attacker or the best player for the other team,” said Caputi.

The Polar Bears will also lose seniors Reis, O’Toole and Will Wise in the midfield.

“We lose about 160 points from Frank Reis, Dan Hanley [’14] and O’Toole,” said Kujala.

As the team looks ahead to next year, the juniors have the responsibility of ensuring that the team fills the voids left by graduating players.

“Becoming a senior defenseman, there’s a lot more expected of my performance and sort of helping some of the younger guys along,” said Caputi. “It can be difficult—especially for freshmen adjusting to the speed of the college game from high school.”

The team will benefit from the return of Tyler Williams ’15, who broke his wrist in early April in a game against Colby. Caputi said that Williams was consistently “scoring huge goals” for the Polar Bears before his injury.

The team will look to improve next year and make a deeper run into the NESCAC tournament.“As long as we’re doing what we’re supposed to in the weight room in the summer and in the fall, and getting out and playing, I think we’ll be fine” said Caputi.

The baseball team dropped its first home series of the year at Pickard Field to Colby, winning the second game but losing the first and third. On Wednesday, the team dropped a close non-conference game to Husson, 6-5. The three losses sink Bowdoin to 13-9-1 on the year and 4-5 in NESCAC play.

Last Friday afternoon, Bowdoin stepped onto Pickard Field for the first time this season to take on the Mules.

Contributing two hits and scoring a run, Peter Cimini ’16 led the charge in the matchup against the Mules on Friday. However, stifled by the pitching performance of Colby’s Scott Goldberg, Bowdoin gathered just six hits and two runs on the day.

“[Goldberg] was very effective” said Sam Canales ’15, “[He] was keeping us off balance and hitting his spots.”

“He hit the outside corner a lot and was probably an inch or so off the plate,” noted Stephen Girolamo ’16. “It’s tough, as a hitter, to go up there and tell yourself to swing at that first pitch off the plate because obviously you’re going up there looking for a pitch you can drive, that you can get an extra base hit on.”

The Polar Bears stayed close through three innings, but a five-run third inning opened up a lead for Colby and created an insurmountable deficit for Bowdoin, who eventually lost 8-2.The next day, the Polar Bears hosted a double header against Colby.

In the early game, Bowdoin again struggled to produce runs in the early going, partially due to Colby’s great defense.

 “They put together a really solid effort on the mound and in the field,” said Sam Herzig ’14. “They made some amazing plays, and their shortstop did a great job making plays the whole series.”

Late in the game, the Polar Bears were sparked by two great plays in the field and one at the plate, which led them to the comeback win.

“Aaron Rosen [’15] had a big play in the field that saved a run at second base. He kept the ball from going into the outfield and actually made an out instead. Sam Canales had a great play on a bunt coming in from third base. Both of those defensive plays were huge and saved runs,” said Herzig.

In the bottom of the sixth inning, Chad Martin ’16 capitalized on a hanging breaking ball and crushed his third homerun of the year.

“Pete and [Cole DiRoberto ’15] did a good job of getting on, and then with Chad, I mean, the kid can hit a homerun at any point in the game, so its nice to have him in the lineup,” said Canales.

In the afternoon, DiRoberto  and captain John Lefeber ’14 led Bowdoin’s offense with two hits apiece. While Lefeber drove in two runs himself and Jay Loughlin ’14 held the Mules to just two hits in five innings of work on the mound, Colby managed to scrape across four runs, stealing the rubber match from the Polar Bears.

“We had the bases loaded in the first and second inning and when you have the opportunity to open up a game like that, especially early on, you have to do it,” said Girolamo. “Because if you don’t take advantage of it in the beginning of the game, who knows what’s going to happen.”

In their game agains Husson on Wednesday, the Bears took an early 4-0 lead. However, a sixth inning four run surge helped Husson take the lead and hold on for a 6-5 win.

Bowdoin was led by Rosen, Martin and DiRoberto, who each contributed multi-hit games in the effort.

The Polar Bears, fourth in their division at 4-5, will look to move past the defeat when they play at the University of Southern Maine at 3:30 p.m. today.

“Once you play a game, especially a close one like that, the worst thing you can do is dwell on the loss,” said Girolamo.

Following a four game win streak heading into the weekend, the women’s tennis team kept its fire alive in matches against Tufts and Brandeis. After handily beating the Jumbos 7-2 on Saturday, the Polar Bears traveled to Waltham, Mass. and in a tightly contested match, took down Brandeis, 5-3. The two victories extend Bowdoin’s win streak to six matches and leaves them ranked No. 7 in the nation.

Going into the match against Tufts, the team prepared for a tough contest against a NESCAC rival.

“Tufts was supposed to be our closer match, but we ended up coming away with a pretty easy win,” said Tiffany Cheng ’17.

The Polar Bears received huge contributions in four singles matches from No. 1 Cheng (6-2, 6-3), No. 2 Kate Winingham ’14 (6-2, 7-5), No. 5 Emma Lewis ’14 (6-3, 6-3) and No. 6 Pilar Giffenig ’17 (6-3, 6-2) in order to clinch the win.

After dismantling Tufts, however, Cheng said, “Going into Brandeis we weren’t as mentally prepared.”

Despite this, two doubles wins by a team of Cheng and Giffenig at No. 3 (8-4) as well as the pairing of Samantha Stadler ’17 and Winningham (8-6) helped Bowdoin gain a 2-1 lead over Brandeis. However, after a furious comeback attempt by Brandeis, Lewis responded with a singles victory (4-6, 6-2, 6-2) and sealed the win for Bowdoin. 

“We knew at least Sam [Stadler] or Emma [Lewis] had to win their match. So that was a crucial moment and Emma ended up coming through,” said Cheng.

After losing to Pomona-Pitzer and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps during their spring break trip to California, the Polar Bears regained their form and have not dropped a match since.

“We didn’t let those losses affect us because we knew those teams were really good and we knew we would just keep getting better,” said Stadler. “So we just kept working on our games and did well after that.”

Other players, like Lewis, said the team realized weaknesses in their matches after losses that needed to be fixed.

“We wanted to work on our match toughness in general, really embracing the big points and the pressure situations,” said Lewis.

The Polar Bears will face two top five nationally-ranked teams in Amherst and Emory in the coming weeks.

“We are definitely taking it one game at a time,” said Stadler, “But we are working up to those matches.

However, success in upcoming matches is also important in proving the team can achieve its ultimate goal.

“We definitely want to win the National Championships,” said Cheng. “It’s something we work for every year but this year we really do have a good shot.”

The team will take on Connecticut College (1-4) on April 6, Amherst (4-2) on April 11 and Emory (14-2) on April 13.

The men’s squash team took on George Washington University, Hamilton and Amherst in the Team Nationals-Summers Cup at Harvard last weekend. After losing a tough match against George Washington University on Friday, Bowdoin bounced back to take down Hamilton and Amherst.

The team came into the tournament seeded at No. 21 and left in the same position at the end of the weekend.

“George Washington has a really strong top of the ladder [players one through five],” said captain Stephan Danyluk ’14, who was named First Team All-NESCAC yesterday.