Women's Lacrosse Takes Care of Bowdoin and Trinity, Sits #3 in National Poll
The Mules held off an early charge by the Polar Bears in Brunswick Wednesday and ran away from #15 Trinity Saturday to run their record to 10-2, holding their #3 position in the IWLCA Coaches Poll.
Bowdoin held Colby to a single first-half score Wednesday night, jumping out to a 3-1 halftime lead. The Mules were able to come out of the break on fire, outscoring Bowdoin 7-2 in the final 30 minutes to cruise to the 8-5 win. Jillian Kane collected her third double-digit save performance of the season with 10. Julia Jardina and Gennie Littlejohn each tallied two goals to lead Colby, and defender Kat Munter went coast-to-coast midway through the fourth for her first career score, and the eventual game-winner.
On Saturday, Trinity got off to a hot start jumping in front of Colby 2-1. The Mules' defense clamped down for an epic performance, holding Trinity scoreless for the final 52 minutes of play. The Bantams' two goals were their lowest scoring performance since 2006. Jardina tallied a season-high six goals and currently sits just behind the NESCAC leader Hope Shue from Middlebury (3.69 goals per game) with 3.67 gpg.
Colby celebrated the careers and commitment of 12 seniors and their families after Saturday's game.
The Mules will travel to Beverly, Mass. Tuesday for a matchup with Endicott before heading to face #25 Williams on Saturday.
Women's Tennis Earns Third Conference Victory
After coming up short to Amherst 6-1 on Saturday, the Mules bounced back defeating Hamilton on Sunday 4-3.
In Sunday's win over the Continentals, Colby swept the three doubles matchups with Michaela Landry and Isabella Suk winning 6-3, Ella Novion and Amelie Gal winning 6-1, and Anna Rende and Jade Finestone winning 6-3. In singles, Landry, Novion and Waka Aida took care of their opponents to hang on for the 4-3 team win. Aida had the most dominating performance in the four spot winning 6-1, 6-0.
Finestone picked up the lone win against the Mammoths Saturday at the one spot (6-3, 5-7, 10-5). Aida (9-8) and Gal (10-8) remain above .500 in singles play for the Mules.
The 6-7 Mules (3-4 in conference play, good for sixth) will remain at home this week taking on Bowdoin Saturday.
After Split with Wesleyan, Softball Tied for Second in NESCAC
With weather erasing any potential matchups early in the week, Colby's Softball team set its sights on a meeting with Wesleyan University on Friday night with great anticipation. The Cardinals opened the season with ten straight wins and already had sweeps over Bowdoin and Amherst under their belts.
The Mules wasted little time getting to Wesleyan ace Abby Orso (Colby graduate '24), with an RBI single by Ella Wilcox in the first inning. Wilcox knocked in another in the third with a sacrifice fly, and the pitching tandem of KC DeSarno and Sophia Meade combined to scatter three Cardinal hits and no runs for a 2-0 victory.
The second game appeared to be another tight battle, as the two ended the fourth inning locked at one. Wesleyan opened up the game in the fifth sending 16 batters to the plate and putting the game out of reach.
The Softball team was joined by Colby's Volleyball team between games to celebrate the life of former coach Candice Parent and bring awareness to Cholangiocarcinoma, the form of cancer that took the life of Colby's beloved former Volleyball and Softball coach.
The Mules have a full slate this week hosting Husson for two on Monday, heading to Orono for a solo matchup with the Black Bears on Thursday, and then double headers with Tufts and USM Saturday and Sunday.
Baseball Completes Sweep of USM, Enters Series with Bates
With four games on the original schedule for this week, Colby's Baseball team battled the weather and settled for half as Saturday's doubleheader at Bates was postponed twice.
In the final game of a two-game set against Southern Maine (the Mules beat the Huskies 5-4 in March), Colby took the series with another 5-4 victory in Gorham. Corey Aubuchon tallied a double and a home run, and his fourth inning shot proved to be the winning run. Matt Higgins earned his fourth save of the season with a 1-2-3 scoreless ninth.
In Friday's Matchup with Bates, Colby got on the board first, but Bates responded in the third to jump in front. Trading runs over the middle innings, it wasn't until the ninth when Bates plated two insurance runs to put the game just out of reach. The Mules threatened in almost every inning, but Colby's momentum was consistently held at bay. Three inning-ending double plays ended potential rallies in the fifth, sixth, and eight innings.
With Saturday's double header originally pushed to Sunday before being postponed yet again, the Mules and Bobcats will play one game on Monday afternoon with the second to be determined.
Cohen Earns Two More Wins at #1 Singles as Men's Tennis Takes On Mammoths, Continentals
Heading on the road for the final time this regular season, the Mules battled #10 Amherst and Hamilton over the weekend.
On Saturday in Mass. despite falling 5-2 as a team, Colby picked up two singles wins. Josh Kaplan came back from a set down in the sixth position to defeat his Amherst opponent 3-6, 6-4, 1-0(3) while Jake Cohen also made a comeback win 6-7, 6-4, 1-0(7) in the number one spot.
The following day in New York, the Mules began their match taking the lone doubles point. The pairing of Cohen and Jason Daly won 7-5 in the one spot as Kaplan and Diego Sosa won 6-4 in the three spot. Heading into singles Cohen found another win in the one spot dominating 6-3, 6-0. His doubles partner Daly took care of the two spot 6-2, 6-2. Despite the 3-0 lead the Mules could not hang on falling in the three through six singles matchups.
Men’s Tennis with a 6-7 record, will host Bowdoin on Thursday for their lone match of the week.
Men's Lacrosse Takes it to the Wire at Trinity, Bello Erupts for Five goals
With the final weeks of the season closing in, the Mules continued to navigate through the demanding NESCAC schedule with battles against #6 Bowdoin and Trinity.
The Bowdoin offense was fast and furious Wednesday night, starting with the face off. The Polar Bears earned 67% of the draws, leading to an unbalanced time of possession and 15 goals. Will Heisler turned away 24 shots, and five different Mules tallied goals, but it wasn't enough to turn Bowdoin away.
Saturday's matchup at Trinity was a completely different story, with both squads playing as even as we've seen this year. Sophomore Easton Bello delivered a spark for Colby. After entering the contest with only one goal on the season, Bello netted five to tie the game in the second quarter and bring the Mules to within one with 10 minutes to play. The Bantams were able to score two more down the stretch and hold off four Colby shots in the final minutes to take the conference victory.
Colby will host Williams Saturday for Senior Day.
Distance Track Competes at Conn. College and Southern New Hampshire
This weekend, the Mules headed to New London, Conn. for the Silfen Invitational on Friday followed by the Ed Daniels Invitational in Manchester, N.H. on Saturday.
At Conn, Colby tallied three top-five finishes including Henry Reichle’s third place finish in the 1500m, Brady Clegg’s third in the 3000m steeplechase, and Claire Beebe’s fourth place position in the 5000m run.
The following day at SNHU, Colby had just two athletes compete, Abbey Wolfe and Ada Grant, who grabbed impressive second and fifth place finishes in the 5000m run out of 17 total competitors.
Next up, Colby Track & Field will host the Pine Tree State Classic this Friday and Saturday, their last meet ahead of the NESCAC Championships.
Special thank you to the photographers who helped make this production possible: Bonnie Baker Photography, Steve Cheney P'25, Stephen R. Clouthier, Traigh DeMasi '28, Jamie Fiedorek '25, Steve Fuller @flyingpoint, Peter Li '26, Michael Maher, Reese Robinson '27, Junan Shimizu '25, Daryn Slover P'28, Marty Thornton Photos, Ansley White '26, and the Colby Communications team.