Elena Mandzhukova '15 won with Elizabeth Erbafina '17 at No. 1 doubles in Bates' loss to Bowdoin on April 16, 2014. (File photo by Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College)

LEWISTON, Maine -- The Bates College women's tennis team won at No. 1 doubles and took a pair of sets in singles play to highlight its 8-1 loss to No. 7 nationally ranked Bowdoin on Wednesday night in Alumni Gymnasium.

The loss drops the Bobcats, who are ranked 14th in the Northeast Region Division III teams by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, to 7-5 overall and 2-2 in NESCAC play, while Bowdoin, ranked third in the Northeast, rose to 12-4 overall and 5-1 in league play.

The match didn't get started until 8pm and lasted past midnight, because the Polar Bears also crammed in a 9-0 win at Colby on Wednesday afternoon before traveling to Lewiston.

Bates junior Elena Mandzhukova (Lisbon, Portugal) and first-year Elizabeth Erbafina (Sudbury, Mass.) teamed up for an 8-4 win over the fourth-ranked doubles pair in the Northeast, in Bowdoin's Joulia Likhanskaia and Emma Lewis. Bowdoin controlled the other two doubles matchups and took a 2-1 lead into singles play.

Mandzhukova took on the 10th-ranked singles player in the Northeast, Tiffany Cheng, at No. 1 singles and wrested the first set by a 6-3 score before Cheng rebounded for a three-set victory.

Meanwhile, Erbafina dealt her first-year counterpart at No. 3 singles, Likhanskaia, a 1-0 deficit by winning a tiebreaker in the first set. Likhanskaia, ranked 19th among the region's singles players, came back to blank Erbafina 6-0 in the second set, then outlasted the Bobcat standout by a 7-5 score in the final set to earn the team point.

Bates plays at Brandeis on Friday at 10am in its final non-conference match of the season, followed by a NESCAC match at Tufts on Saturday at 4pm.

Bowdoin 8, Bates 1
April 17, 2014 at Lewiston, Maine (Merrill Gym)

Doubles
1. Elena Mandzhukova/Elizabeth Erbafina (Bates) def. Joulia Likhanskaia/Emma Lewis (Bowdoin) 8-4
2. Kate Winingham/Samantha Stalder (Bowdoin) def. Kristen Doerer/Kate Rosenthal (Bates) 8-4
3. Pilar Giffenig/Tiffany Cheng (Bowdoin) def. Lucy Brennan/Olivia Voccola (Bates) 8-3

Singles
1. Cheng (Bowdoin) def. Mandzhukova (Bates) 3-6, 6-1, 6-4
2. Winingham (Bowdoin) def. Brennan (Bates) 6-1, 6-4
3. Likhanskaia (Bowdoin) def. Erbafina (Bates) 6-7 (3), 6-0, 7-5
4. Stalder (Bowdoin) def. Doerer (Bates) 6-1, 6-0
5. Lewis (Bowdoin) def. Rosenthal (Bates) 6-0, 6-3
6. Giffenig (Bowdoin) def. Voccola (Bates) 6-2, 6-4