Coming into the week, the Wesleyan women’s basketball team was poised to make a run at the third seed in the playoffs, which it would have attained had it proved victorious in their two contests this past week. Unfortunately, Bowdoin and Colby had other ideas, and both the Mules and the Polar Bears were able to leapfrog the Cardinals to take their desired seed. Wesleyan went into the week with a 5-3 record, and given that Colby and Bowdoin were tied for third seed with 7-3 records, two wins in the week for Wes would have put them ahead of both of their rivals from Maine.

Wes made the trek up to Brunswick last Friday, but were unable to recapture the Senior Day spark that helped them beat Hamilton. Playing in front of an estimated crowd of over 700, Wesleyan played hard through the first half, but lost its luster as the game dragged on. This has been the trend in most of the team’s losses this year. The game, which had provided a see-sawing bit of entertaining basketball for the first 20 minutes, was tied by a score of 25-25 at the half. Five minutes later, Bowdoin took the lead from Wesleyan for the final time, and continued to pile on points in a game that eventually ended 70-56. Scoring leader credentials went to KellyAnn Rooney ’14 with 17, followed closely by Eileen Gaffney ’12, who contributed 16 points in the losing effort.

Wes retained hope of a home playoff game coming into the next day in a match up against Colby. Those hopes were immediately dashed, as Colby burst out of the gates with a scoring onslaught and took a 24-point lead at the half. The game got out of hand quickly, perhaps a result of the letdown associated with the Bowdoin game the day before, or residual tiredness from the same contest. This time, Gaffney led the Cardinals in points with her 15-point effort, the highest total contributed by a member of either team.

Now that the playoff picture has been officially settled, Wesleyan will make the unfortunate northward journey for the second time in a week when they go to Brunswick to face third-ranked Bowdoin this Saturday. Given the much closer nature of this game, the Cardinals will be out for revenge, and will have a good chance to achieve a better result after already having already seen the Polar Bears squad.