After finishing second in the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) tournament and setting a new program record with 16 wins in a single season, the men’s lacrosse team will start its NCAA Division III tournament run this Saturday against Colorado College at Whittier Field.
Last Saturday, Ben McKenzie ’23 set a program baseball record with six hits in a 17-4 win against Bates. The same game, McKenzie also had five runs and five RBIs.
McKenzie believes that he has always had an affinity for the sport, dating back to when he began playing in his home state of Massachusetts.
With a 13-11 win against Hamilton on Saturday in the NESCAC quarterfinals, the men’s lacrosse team advanced to the conference semifinals for the first time since 2016. Coming off their first loss of the season to the Tufts team, the Polar Bears started quickly to the tune of a 5-1 lead in the first ten minutes.
BRING OUT THE BROOMS
Following an impressive 14-1 season, the men’s lacrosse team swept the NESCAC yearly awards for the first time in program and league history. Head Coach Bill Mason won Coach of the Year in his first season with the program, with attacker Donal Mullane ’21 winning Player of the Year and first-year phenom Will Byrne ’24 winning Rookie of the Year to round out the sweep.
The men’s lacrosse team always knew that returning to a full schedule after a two-year hiatus would be a tall order. Despite three-quarters of its roster having never played more than three college games going into this season, the team has stormed to 12 straight wins this season, tied for its best start ever.
On March 23, men’s lacrosse player Will Byrne ’24 netted five goals and assisted on six more in a 23-16 win over Western New England University. The Polar Bears are off to a red-hot 8-0 start, and much of their success can be attributed to Byrne’s stellar run of form.
Charlie Pyne ’22 is a senior on the men’s lacrosse team, but he has only played one season. He wasn’t injured, he didn’t ride the bench and he didn’t take time off. Pyne just belongs to one of the few teams on campus that has not played a game since March 2020.
An estimated 10,000 spectators flocked to Whittier Field one Saturday afternoon in the fall of 1960 to witness what the Boston Globe referred to as the game of the week between Bowdoin and the University of Maine.
Taking substantive action as outlined by their team’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) action plan, men’s lacrosse will be running a 5K tomorrow to raise money for Harlem Lacrosse, an organization that empowers youth at risk of school dropout and academic decline through lacrosse and academic support.
Nearing the home stretch of its regular season, the men’s lacrosse team (6-6, 2-5 NESCAC) sits at .500, but has struggled in the NESCAC, where it is currently in ninth place. All is not lost, though—the team sits just one game behind the final NESCAC playoff seed with three conference games left to play.
After two consecutive losses this past week snapped an eight-game win streak, the sixth-ranked men’s lacrosse team (8-4, NESCAC 4-4) is more focused than ever as they head into tomorrow’s game against Williams (7-6, NESCAC 5-3).
After two tough losses to Connecticut College and Amherst to start the season, the men’s lacrosse team has won seven games in a row, advancing its overall record to 7-2. The team is 4-2 in the NESCAC after beating Trinity 10-7 on Saturday and Bates 14-13 this past Wednesday night.
Tournament time.
The women’s tennis team (13-4, 5-3 NESCAC) is seeded fifth heading into the first round of NESCAC playoffs this weekend where it will face No. 2 Wesleyan (11-3, 5-3 NESCAC). The Polar Bears hope to build off their recent success—an 8-1 win over Babson (10-8) and a 9-0 shutout over MIT (12-8) last weekend—as they go up against a strong Cardinal squad.
Smooth sailing.
The sailing team competed in two regattas last weekend. Finishing seventh out of 18 teams, the windless Admiral’s Cup significantly limited racing. At the Women’s New England Championship, the Polar Bears battled it out with Harvard, ultimately winning a tiebreaker against the Crimson to secure the final qualifying spot for Women’s Nationals.
Straight shutouts.
The women’s tennis team is currently 10-2, 4-1 NESCAC after a 9-0 win over Connecticut College (6-5, 0-3 NESCAC) on Sunday. Despite injuries that have weakened the team’s roster, the Polar Bears have won three of their last four games—all dominant 9-0 shutouts—and are currently ranked fourth in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Division III poll.
After winning its previous six games, the Bowdoin men’s lacrosse team (6-3, 4-2 NESCAC) was defeated by an unbeaten Bates squad (9-0, 6-0 NESCAC) on Wednesday. The game—with a final score of 13-12—was extremely close with neither team holding more than a three-goal lead at any point in the match.
The men’s lacrosse team will open its season with a visit to Amherst on Sunday to take on the Purple and White. The Polar Bears come into the season ranked 11th in the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) Division III preseason poll looking to build off of last year’s success.