BRUNSWICK — After reeling off four wins to start the 2018/19 season, the Bowdoin College women’s basketball team has been voted to the top spot in the NCAA Division III D3hoops.com poll.
It is the sixth time the Polar Bears have been ranked at the top of the poll, and the first since 2007, when Bowdoin entered the tournament as the top team, before being ousted in the Elite Eight and finishing with a 30-2 mark. It is the first time under head coach Adrienne Shibles that Bowdoin has attained the top spot.
“While the recognition is nice, we make a point of stating to our women that polls this early in the season should not be celebrated,” Shibles said, coaching her 11th season at the college.
Bowdoin received 17-of-25 first-place votes. Hope, St. Thomas, Thomas Moore and Chicago round out the top five. NESCAC rivals Tufts and Amherst, which fell to Eastern Connecticut last week, are sixth and seventh, respectively.
The 4-0 Monks of St. Joseph’s are 12th as Maine’s only other ranked team in the poll.
Tuesday was an off day for the Polar Bears, but Shibles was sure the team heard the news.
“Yesterday (Tuesday) was our day off, so I am assuming that we all heard the news from social media,” said the coach. “We had already discussed it though as our team knew a number one ranking was a real possibility when Amherst got upset last week.”
The 2017/18 runners-up began the season ranked second, behind the defending champion Mammoths, beating their opponents by an average of nearly 44 points per game.
Averaging 91.3-points game so far, the Polar Bears have defeated Regis (87-22), Colby-Sawyer (94-56), the University of New England (106-55) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (78-57) to open the season.
Junior Maddie Hasson leads the team, averaging 15.8-ppg, while Abby Kelly (11.5) and Taylor Choate (10.3) also average double-digits. Hannah Graham and first-year Sela Kay are both averaging 9.5 points for the Polar Bears. Kay is a cool 8-for-13 from behind the arc, while Kelly has hauled down 22 rebounds and Choate has dished out 20 assists thus far in the young season.
The Polar Bears are back in action on Saturday when they travel to face rival Colby at 2 p.m., and team will be focused on getting better while defending its status.
“We have to continue to get one percent better each day in order to achieve our potential as a team,” Shibles said. “It is just one more reason to stay focused on the process. There will certainly be even more of a target on our backs, so we need to make sure we are never complacent.”
After Colby, Bowdoin will travel to play the University of Maine at Farmington (Tuesday) and the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth (Dec. 6), before hosting Bates on Dec. 8, the final game before the holiday break.
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