LEWISTON, Maine - The Bowdoin College men's tennis team picked up an important conference victory Thursday evening as they bounced rival Bates, 6-3, at Merrill Indoor Gymnasium. The 14th-ranked Polar Bears improve to 9-5 (4-3 NESCAC) and will travel to play Trinity at Harvard Friday at 3:00 p.m.

Bowdoin got going with a commanding performance in doubles play, sweeping the three matches to take an early 3-0 edge. Samuel King and Chris Lord took an impressive 8-2 win at #2 doubles while Oscar Pena and Stephen Sullivan (#1) and Casey Grindon and Kent Winingham (#3) both earned hotly-contested 9-7 wins.

The Polar Bears needed to win only two of the remaining singles matches and ended up taking three courtesy of Sullivan (#1), Grindon (#4) and Michael Power (#5).