Bowdoin men’s lacrosse hosts NESCAC semifinals in historic season run
Bowdoin brought the NESCAC semifinals to Whittier Field for the first time, chasing its first conference title after a 14-0 regular season and a win that stunned Tufts.
Bowdoin turned Whittier Field into the center of the NESCAC race this weekend, hosting the league semifinals and championship for the first time in program history while chasing a first conference crown that had eluded the Polar Bears for decades.
The stakes were clear in Brunswick: Bowdoin entered the tournament 14-0 overall and 10-0 in conference play, ranked No. 1 nationally in the USILA Division III poll, and carrying the pressure of a season that had already rewritten the record book. The Polar Bears had completed only the second unbeaten regular season in program history, matching a mark last reached in 1989, and had already gone farther than any Bowdoin men’s lacrosse team had before by earning the right to host the final NESCAC rounds on May 2 and 3.
That breakthrough was built on a signature win over Tufts on April 22, when Bowdoin snapped the Jumbos’ 42-game winning streak with a 14-12 road victory in Medford, Massachusetts. It was Bowdoin’s first win over Tufts since 2017 and its first road win there since 2006, and it gave the Polar Bears the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament. It also underscored how far this roster had come after reaching the NCAA Division III semifinals in each of the previous two seasons.
The balance of the team has been a major reason for the surge. Bowdoin allowed the fewest goals in the NESCAC and ranked second in scoring, with Casey Ryan leading the league in goals, assists and points. Chris Berry remained near the top of the scoring charts, and goalie Alec Delgado anchored a defense that had rarely bent all spring. Coach Bill Mason’s group entered the postseason with a profile that combined production, depth and experience, and it showed why this run felt different from the Polar Bears’ previous close calls.
Bowdoin advanced to the title game with a 17-11 semifinal win over Hamilton on May 2 at Whittier Field, moving into the NESCAC championship for the first time since 2022. Ryan delivered the biggest individual performance of the day with six goals and three assists for nine points, as Bowdoin built a 5-1 lead early in the second quarter and held off Hamilton’s response before halftime.
The championship matchup with Tufts on May 3 carried even more weight. Tufts entered with 12 NESCAC titles and had reached the final in 14 of 17 tournaments, a reminder of how often the conference has run through Medford. Bowdoin had finished runner-up four times, in 2022, 2012, 2008 and 2001, which made this home-hosted title game more than a milestone on the schedule. It was the program’s best chance yet to convert a historic regular season into the first conference championship in school history, with an automatic NCAA Division III berth on the line.
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