In an effort to avenge their recent loss to Little Three rival Amherst College and prove their ability to compete with some of the toughest competition the NESCAC has to offer, the Wesleyan Cardinals (0-1 NESCAC, 5-4-1 Overall) played two important games this past week. First, they took on Western Connecticut State University at home, which was followed by a match against a strong Bowdoin team in Brunswick, ME. Unfortunately, in what is becoming a trend this year, the Cardinals handily defeated their lesser out-of-conference opponent, but were unable to stop their Polar Bear rivals in the overnight trip to the north.

WCSU came to Wesleyan last Tuesday in the wake of an embarrassing home defeat to the Cardinals at the hands of the top seeded Amherst Lord Jeffs. The Cardinals did everything that a team would need to do to successfully get back on track with an absolute destruction of the away team 9-0. Every single player on both the singles and doubles sides for Wesleyan won in straight sets, including #1 Jeff Legunn ‘13, #2 Alex Hirsch ‘13, #3 Brian McDermott ‘12, #4 Donald Kleckner ‘13, #5 Michael Glen ‘13, #6 Steve Hauser ‘11 and the doubles teams of #1 Legunn/Michael Piderit ‘12, #2 Kleckner/Hirsch, and #3 Robert Troyer ‘12/Garrett Blank ‘11. Wesleyan was rarely pushed, dropping an astounding zero sets on the day, and setting themselves up with a healthy confidence heading into their away game last weekend.

Unfortunately, the healthy confidence and redemption win on their home court proved insufficient against a Bowdoin team who simply had Wes’ number all game, ensuring that the Cardinals were handed their second NESCAC loss on the year 0-9. A stark contrast to the game that the Cardinals played at home only days before, yet eerily reminiscent, as the Polar Bears managed to not drop a single set, just as the Cardinals had done against WCSU. While the men managed to pick up games here and there, they never had a good opportunity to win a match on the indoor courts at Bowdoin.

The Cardinals can take solace that, after facing some of the cream of the crop in the ’CAC, there are some winnable league games on the horizon against Colby, Connecticut College, and Hamilton. The Cards will look to re-group against another team devoid of wins in NESCAC play when the Colby Mules (0-2 NESCAC, 5-2 Overall) come to town this Saturday, April 9.