BRUNSWICK, ME - The Bowdoin College women's tennis team closed out its regular season with a 6-3 win over Tufts on Saturday.
The eighth-ranked Polar Bears improve to 13-3 (6-2 NESCAC) with the win. Tufts, #20 nationally, drops to 7-8 (4-4 NESCAC).
With a win at #2 doubles from Chantalle Lavertu and Kellen Alberstone (8-3) followed by a clutch win at #3 courtesy of Kate Winingham and Emma Lewis (8-6), the Polar Bears carried a 2-1 edge into singles play. The Tufts doubles win was earned at #1 by senior Lauren Hollender (Newton, MA) and junior Shelci Bowman (Dallas, TX).
The Jumbos went down 4-2 with four matches still on in the marathon competition which lasted longer than five hours. Junior Samantha Gann (Massapequa, NY) won in three sets to make it 4-3. At that point, senior co-captain Janice Lam (San Francisco, CA) was up 4-3 in the #6 third set, Hollender was at 6-6 about to start a third-set breaker at #4, and senior co-captain Lindsay Katz (Baltimore, MD) was down 2-1 in first singles. Only Katz pulled out a win, defeating 15th ranked Kellen Alberstone in three sets.
Despite falling at the top two singles spots, Bowdoin's depth made the difference as the Polar Bears earned straight-set wins at #3 from Tiffany Cheng (6-0, 6-2) and at #5 from Emma Lewis (6-3, 6-2) to come within a point of victory. Winingham (3-6, 6-4, 7-6) battled for a tough win at #4 and Emma Chow (5-7, 6-4, 6-4) rallied at #6 to put Bowdoin over the top.
Tufts wasn't finished for the day, travelling to Bates for another NESCAC match later in the afternoon.
Match results
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