Lacrosse

[polbear73]

It's interesting to watch a very young Bowdoin squad as they seem to play to the level of their competition as they followed closer than expected victories over Babson and Trinity (who has given some very good teams fits, to be fair) with probably their best game of the season last night, beating #6 Bates in Lewiston, 14-10.  There is still a lot of lacrosse to be played against some very good teams, but these young Polar Bears have to be one of the biggest surprises of the season so far. 

[PolarCat]

Where else but D3 could you see such dramatic changes in fortune in one school's men's and women's team over the course of one short year?  In 2015, the Bowdoin MLAX struggled, while the WLAX had their best campaign in years, losing in the third round of the NCAA's.  This year, it's the men who are the Top Dogs, er, Bears, and the women who are struggling.  Both teams played in driving snowstorms last night, and both faced in-state rivals Bates. 

The men played on state-of-the-art rubber pellet turf at Garcelon field, where their cleats gave them traction till the end of regulation.  The women played on short-turf Howard Ryan Field.  By halftime, they could just as easily been playing on the ice in Watson Arena, the footing was so bad.  (If this was the Olympics, the East German judge would have been giving style points for the double axels and triple lutzes, particularly when the spinning/sliding player did not lose the ball from her crosse in the process of going to the ground).

A VERY good Bates team walloped the Polar Bears, leading 17-6 when the refs called the game due to the atrocious playing conditions.  It was Bates first victory over Bowdoin since 2006, and their first 10-game-winning season since 1992 (!).  The Bobcats have a talented, motivated, balanced team, with an insanely-talented GK, fronted by a tenacious D.  They have a chance at winning the NESCAC this year; I'd put their play Wednesday on a par with Trinity and Middlebury, and with Maggie Caputie's season-ending injury, they are arguably a better team than the Panthers heading into the playoffs.

Despite losing GK Hannah Jeffrey to graduation, the Bobcats will have a chance to build on this momentum next year, as 7 of their top 10 points scorers return.  Bates is starting to reap the benefits of having a fan for a President, and a great AD in Kevin McHugh.  (Here's hoping some of the mojo rubs off on football).

(Perhaps the saddest story of the night was the Bates parent who walked up to me out of the billowing snow in Brunswick, and asked me which field the men's teams were playing on.  I cringed telling him they were playing 45 minutes away in Lewiston).

[amh63]

PolarCat....I actually watched some of the game last night.  Thought the game should have been stopped at halftime.....while watching the grounds crew trying to make the field playable!  How could they see the ball and the team in the white uniforms? 

[PolarCat]

One of the Bowdoin MLAX players just updated his FB profile with this great photo from Wednesday night.  It tells you all you need to know about the conditions, and the Polar Bears' determination. (Click on the photo to expand.  Although it looks like an Ansel Adams, it actually is a color photo):

[polbear73]

One of the Bowdoin MLAX players just updated his FB profile with this great photo from Wednesday night.  It tells you all you need to know about the conditions, and the Polar Bears' determination. (Click on the photo to expand.  Although it looks like an Ansel Adams, it actually is a color photo):

Wow, what a great shot, especially when expanded.  Thanks, PC.  Plus k

[amh63]

If the Polarbear players wore their white uniforms, hey would been even harder to defend!

[PolarCat]

If the Polarbear players wore their white uniforms, hey would been even harder to defend!

The Lady Polar Bears wore white in Brunswick, and toward the end of the game they were definitely "stealth".  Maybe not so much from the standpoint of defending them, but the Bowdoin clears were definitely a challenge: it's hard hard to have accurate depth perception when passing to a white-uniformed teammate, skating down a white field, against a backdrop of pure white.

At least the women play with yellow balls, so there was a little bit of contrast.  I can't imagine what it must have been like trying to keep track of the white ball (in white pockets) in the men's game.  Every time players ran down field, clots of snow flew off their cleats, and with a white ball it would have been tough to tell the snow balls from the lacrosse balls.

I noticed the Hamilton at Midd WLAX game was "postponed" due to the weather, and has not yet been rescheduled.  I hope they made that decision before the Lady Continentals embarked on their 3 1/2 hour bus trip to Vermont.  It would really have sucked to have driven all the way to Middlebury and have to content oneself with cow tipping.  (Though as cow-tipping goes, it's admittedly world class in Middlebury).

[Bombers798891]

Time to take Ithaca very, very, seriously. They are flat out rolling. They took #16 Stevens to the cleaners 17-7, and now they're making quick work of #11 Nazareth, up 11-3 at the half. The Ithaca-RIT matchup is going to be one to watch from a national perspective*.

*The Bombers do have Fisher and Houghton before RIT, but Fisher lost 22-4 to Nazareth, and Houghton 22-2 to Fisher. Ithaca losing to either of those teams would be a massive, massive shocker.

[Bombers798891]

19-5 Ithaca. Wow is all there is to say

[amh63]

Bomber79. is a believer! . Guess he is now a follower too.

Amherst lacrosse  teams had a winning day.  Women's team won in Maine against a tough game Colby team. men's team had a battle against the Miules on Gooding Field.....Pratt field hosting a track invitatation meet.  Coby took a lead in the first half.  Amherst starts rolling in the third quarter...taking a 11-6 lead in the fourth.  Colby makes a late run in the game but loses 12-9.  Conn up midweek. 

My typing/ spelling is terrible.   Blame it on my ipad

[Vandy74]

It was a two win day for Middlebury Lax over Bates.  The women had a surprisingly easy time of it winning 12-5.  The game wasn't really that close as the Panthers expanded their 6-2 halftime lead to 12-2 at 18:15.  It was over ten minutes later when Sydney Cowles scored the second of her team leading three goals.  Bates GK Hannah Jeffrey came into the game with a save percentage of 60 making her 9 saves on 21 SOG sub par albeit not bad for most others.  24 turnovers, 16 of them uncaused compared to just 14 turnovers for Middlebury was another telling statistic.  Bates is much better then they showed today.  A rematch in the NESCAC tournament is likely.

I watched the 2nd half of the men's game.  Middlebury led 9-3 at the half and held off the Bobcats comeback attempt to win it 15-12.  It was the second quality win in a row for the Panthers who have lost 4 times by a combined total of 5 goals against the #'s 2, 3. 5 and 7 ranked teams in DIII to-date.  The loss to Bowdoin was an OT decision and they took St Lawrence into 2OT.   Staying with the men's game, congratulations to Ithaca on an impressive victory.  That should push them up a few notches in the rankings.  Agreed, barring an unlikely letdown that match up against RIT carries national interest.

I never got around to posting about the postponement of the Midd-Hamilton women's game on Wednesday.  It was a game time decision PolarCat.  Actually I was there at 5 p.m. when they were trying to clean off the field as the snow came down steadily.  They had optimistically hoped to play half an hour late.  The precipitation had been forecast as had the clearing and warming trend that followed soon after.  I won't even mention the fact that if NESCAC STUDENT ATHLETES were allowed to miss an occasional class in order to participate in an athletic contest a game played at 2 or 3 p.m. would have gone off without a hitch.  Well, I guess I did mention it , didn't I?   The field has lights.  They were on at the time.  At 7 p.m., only 90 minutes later than the acceptable revised starting time, the field should have been playable, the precipitation had ended and it was getting warmer by the minute.  We had temps in the mid-50s on Thursday, as forecast.   Why didn't the powers that be understand that?   Now the game has been rescheduled for next Sunday and Middlebury has to play 3 games in 4 days because of it.  I'm blinded by the brilliance of it all.

[polbear73]

This week's Mens USILA/Nike Top 20 has 5 NESCAC teams:  Tufts (3), Amherst (6), Bowdoin (8), Middlebury (10), and Bates (13) with Wesleyan also receiving votes.  With 3 to 4 conference games left to play plus the playoffs, there is still a lot of lacrosse left to be played but, as always, it sets up to be a war to see which teams will represent the conference in the NCAAs.  Another strong year for NESCAC. 

[amh63]

polbear73, seems Bowdoin is doing fine in several other Spring sports lately.  With you and PolarCat posting here, I have been following lacrosse more.  Have been noticing that Bowdoin has been rising in nationally in both men and women tennis...while checking scores.  Tennis has been sport previously been dominated by Williams, with Amherst chasing in the Nescac. 

[Vandy74]

polbear73, seems Bowdoin is doing fine in several other Spring sports lately.  With you and PolarCat posting here, I have been following lacrosse more.  Have been noticing that Bowdoin has been rising in nationally in both men and women tennis...while checking scores.  Tennis has been sport previously been dominated by Williams, with Amherst chasing in the Nescac.

amh63 my friend,

I can't let this one pass unchallenged.  Middlebury has 7 NESCAC  tennis championships to her credit, the last one being the 2015 season when they went on to advance all the way to the national championship match before losing.  They are currently ranked #3 nationally in DIII.  HC Bob Hansen, now in his 5th season, came from UCSC with nothing left to prove having had his teams participate in the national championship finals 13 out of 24 years and winning 7 times.  During his tenure he coached 117 All-Americans.  With all due respect to Amherst, Williams and Bowdoin please do not shortchange the Panthers.

[polbear73]

The Bowdoin men perhaps showed its youth and inexperience last night by blowing a 6 goal lead to lose to a good Keene State team by 1 at home.  Turnovers for the Polar Bears were the culprit and hopefully this is a teachable moment for Coach Archbell.