Box Score WILLIAMSTOWN, MA—The sentiments of the Williams College (7-4) Senior Day briefly subsided as Bowdoin College (9-1) dominated the game, 5-0.
Ranked second in the country and with only one loss on the season, the Polar Bears were the favorite for this game. The Ephs were hopeful at the start coming off of their win against Wesleyan yesterday, but Bowdoin left no room for Eph errors.
Errors, though, is exactly where Eph head coach Alix Barrale attributed the loss. "Bowdoin is a tremendously talented team, but we were beating ourselves by passing the ball to them," she said. "We made too many mental errors which resulted in turning the ball over in our defensive end."
Bowdoin junior Rachel Kennedy was the standout today, as she put in both the first and last three goals of the game. Her first came in the nineteenth minute of the first half. Controlling a difficult ball out of the air from senior Adrienne O'Donnell, Kennedy played it off the bounce and buried it in the net.
With under two minutes left in the half, O'Donnell's ability to create opportunities resulted in another Polar Bear goal. O'Donnell sent the ball into the top of the circle. This time sophomore Kim Ganong was there, and tipped it in after tracking the ball through multiple deflections.
Down 2-0 at the half, Williams tried to use half time as a way to revamp and hoped it would slow Bowdoin's momentum. But the Ephs encountered no such luck.
They were able to resist the Polar Bears offensive pressures for the first twenty minutes of the second half. After half time, Barrale said that, "it was much better with the exception of the last ten minutes."
With just ten minutes to go, Kennedy struck again. After sophomore goalkeeper Margaret Draper made a great save off a Bowdoin corner, Kennedy collected the rebound and knocked it in before the defense was able to react.
Still hungry for another, Kennedy willed in another goal at the 65:00 minute mark. Kennedy capitalized on Williams' inability to clear the ball and slid it past Draper to put Bowdoin up 4-0.
The Polar Bears still did not rest there. With just thirty seconds left, senior Pam Herter sent a ball into her offensive circle. Kennedy's ability to anticipate and win the 50-50 balls gave the Polar Bears one more goal to finish off the game.
The score of the game is largely reflected in the fact that Bowdoin had an enormous 23 shots and 19 penalty corners and Williams had 3 shots and 1 corner. Just as Williams was unable to clear their defensive stops, the Polar Bears were there to turn them into more scoring opportunities.
Williams looks to rebound from this loss on Tuesday away against Skidmore College at 4:00 PM.
