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Volume CXXXII, Number 5 |
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Women's Soccer alive and kicking
ALLIE YANIKOSKI
STAFF WRITER
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| Rachel Kennedy '05 works on her agility in a practice drill. (Evan Kohn, Bowdoin Orient) |
With only three more regular season games, the Bowdoin Women's Soccer team has excellent potential to improve upon its current 8-2-1 record before heading into postseason play.
After easily beating the University of Southern Maine 4-1 on October 9th, the Polar Bears lost their most recent game last Saturday against rival Connecticut College, 2-1 in overtime. Senior co-captain Michal Shapiro scored the first goal of the game, 60 minutes into playing time.
Neither Bowdoin nor Connecticut College took many shots on goal, as the Camels' goalkeeper and Bowdoin's keeper, sophomore Anna Shapell, each made only three saves in almost 100 minutes of playing time.
"What determines whether or not a team wins is [its] intensity, focus, and [drive] to win," said Shapiro. "In the game on Saturday, we were lacking intensity. We did play a good game, but not at the speed or with the desire that is required to win the NESCAC games."
Thus far, Bowdoin holds the fourth best NESCAC record, behind Tufts, Amherst, and Williams. The Polar Bears lost to Tufts 2-1 in overtime two weeks ago; however, they shut out both Amherst and Williams last month, 3-0 and 1-0 respectively.
Yet out of all the 10 NESCAC teams, Bowdoin has the best overall record. Furthermore, the National Soccer Coaches' Association of America currently ranks the Polar Bears as the 23rd best Division III team in the country-the only NESCAC team besides Tufts (ranked 20th) in the top 25.
"Our team has an amazingly dedicated work ethic," said Shapiro. "Practices are always competitive and challenging, and we need to keep up this intensity. We are not yet there, but I believe that we can pull it together for these next three games, and then continue to pick it up in tournament play."
The Polar Bears will face Trinity College, ranked eighth in the NESCAC, at home this Saturday.