The men’s and women’s squash teams headed to Trinity this weekend for the annual NESCAC tournament, with the Wes men seeded 11th and the women seeded eighth. The Wes women defeated Bowdoin 5-4 on the first day but went on to fall to Trinity, Amherst, and Colby to place eighth in the 11-team field, while the Cardinal men fell to Amherst and Colby but defeated Conn. College for the sixth time in the last eight meetings.

The Cardinal women ended a 13-match losing streak to Bowdoin in a big way, taking a 5-4 decision on the first day of tournament action to advance to the championship bracket for the first time in the five-year history of the tournament. Wesleyan took five of seven matches at the No. 3-9 spots to snag their first win against the Polar Bears since Feb. 6, 1994 and avenge a 9-0 loss to Bowdoin in the first round of the 2008 NESCAC tournament. The Cardinals got 3-0 wins at the No. 5 (Gwynne Hunter ’10), No. 6 (Jenny Chu ’11), and No. 9 (Meherazade Sumariwalla ’12) spots and also won the No. 3 (Tanesha Jackson ’13) and No. 7 (Caroline Fox ’12) matches by 3-1 scores.

The eighth-seeded Cardinals advanced to take on top-seeded Trinity on Saturday, and the eventual NESCAC champion Bantams, ranked second nationally, rolled to a 9-0 win without dropping a game along the way. Wesleyan then took on fifth-seeded Amherst and suffered another 9-0 loss, but four Cardinals won at least one game in the match, including Fox, who suffered a narrow 3-2 loss.

Wesleyan ended its tournament action with a Sunday match against seventh-seeded Colby. Although Chu and Fox swept their respective matches, it wasn’t enough as the White Mules won every match at the 1-5 spots en route to a 6-3 win. Sumariwalla contributed the Cardinals’ other win on the afternoon, rolling to a 3-1 victory at No. 9. The team now stands 11-13 on the year.

The 11th-seeded Wesleyan men took on Amherst in their opening tournament match and suffered a 9-0 loss, with the Lord Jeffs sweeping eight of the nine matches. Only Matt Candal ’11 won a game, as he fell 3-1 at the No. 2 spot.

The Cardinals moved into the round-robin consolation bracket along with eighth-seeded Colby and 10th-seeded Conn. College. Wesleyan returned home to take on the Camels and took a 6-3 victory that included sweeps by Candal, Brewster Lee ’13 (No. 5), and Luke Wherry ’13 (No. 7). Wesleyan also got wins from Dale Kobrin ’11 (No. 3, 3-2), Nate Fowles ’10 (No. 4, 3-1), and Shivan Bhavnani ’13 (No. 9, 3-1). The Cardinals fell to Colby 6-3 in their final action of the tournament, however, with Candal (3-0), Wherry (3-1), and Bhavnani (3-2) winners. Wesleyan finished 10th overall, one spot better than its seed in the event, and now sits 8-14 on the season.

The teams will return to action on Saturday in the Vassar Team Challenge. Both the men and women will take on Columbia University at 12:30 p.m., followed by a match against either Conn. College or the host Brewers.