BRUNSWICK – Seven straight trips to the NCAA Division III Sweet 16. Into the Elite Eight, six years running. A home court winning streak of 76 games that ended barely a year ago.

And somehow the Bowdoin College women’s basketball team fancies itself an underdog in the New England Small College Athletic Conference tournament this weekend?

With a straight face, even.

“You do hear it a lot: ‘Bowdoin has never lost a NESCAC championship since it started,” said Bowdoin junior Alexa Kaubris of Rumford. “We’re going into it with an underdog mentality. We’re not expected to win.”

True, Bowdoin usually hosts this hootenanny with an automatic bid to the D-3 tournament on the line, thanks to a No. 1 seed that has seemed its manifest destiny in this decade. And the Polar Bears stumble into this year’s gathering in Amherst, Mass., with a hint of a hitch in their giddy-up at No. 4.

Facing the top seed on its home court in the semifinals would seem a daunting task, until you discover that seven-time defending champions ripped Amherst by 11 in the friendly confines of Morrell Gymnasium on Feb. 2.

This is a new year and admittedly a new era, though, for Bowdoin (18-7). Kaubris’ journey from October to March provides the ideal illustration.

Kaubris settled into a comfort zone at an off guard/small forward position for the Polar Bears, starting all 31 games for a senior-dominated, nationally-ranked team in 2006-07.

Staggering graduation losses – namely, All-American forward Eileen Flaherty and backcourt mainstays Katie Cummings and Julia Loonin – weren’t expected to make much of a dent in Kaubris’ job description. That all changed in the fourth game of this season, however, when 6-foot sophomore Leah Rubega was lost for the year to a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her knee.

“Our team had a lot of challenges to overcome with that,” Kaubris said.

Those challenges were both collective and individual, in Kaubris’ case. Always a ‘tweener’ at 5-foot-8, Kaubris was asked to play an increased role in the land of giants underneath the basket.

The sudden change didn’t slow the evolution of her game. Kaubris nearly doubled her scoring average from 6.8 points per game to 12 this season, ranking second on the team to classmate Jill Anelauskas.

Kaubris also stands third on the team in rebounding (5.2 per game) and made 3-pointers (34), second in assists (57) and first in steals (46). She has led the team in scoring seven times and rebounding on six occasions, highlighted by a career-high 21 points in the win over Amherst.

“I was having a tough enough time learning a new offensive game plan out on the wing,” Kaubris said. “Then Leah got hurt and (Coach) Stef (Pemper) was like, ‘OK, Alexa, you’re going be playing a lot more in the post.’ I think we all take for granted all the work that post players do.”

On a team with only one senior, Kaubris’ good health and versatility are as integral in keeping the Polar Bears in the upper division of NESCAC as that recent winning tradition. She and Maria Noucas are the only Bowdoin players to start all 25 games this winter.

Being that all-purpose performer is something Kaubris perfected at Dirigo High School, where she commonly played all five positions on the court in contributing to the Cougars’ run of Class C state and regional titles.

“Coach (Gavin) Kane was really great at teaching us to be well-rounded,” she said.

Both Dirigo and Bowdoin also made it easy for Kaubris to consider winning an expectation.

Accepting the limitations of a young team in a loaded conference while striving to keep those titanic streaks alive is a delicate balance.

“We lost some seniors who had a lot of ownership in the program. Things are going to be totally different when you lose players like Eileen Flaherty, Julia Loonin and Katie Cummings,” Kaubris said. “We know we haven’t been the same program or the same team. We’ve done a good job of keeping it all within the team and not focusing on the outside pressure.”

Bowdoin went 12-1 from Dec. 30 to Feb. 9 to put itself in position for another tournament bid. The Polar Bears avenged one of their late-season stumbles by knocking out Bates in the NESCAC quarterfinals, 55-51, at home last weekend.

Because of the structure of the NCAA tournament and the number of conferences receiving automatic bids, a loss this evening might make Bowdoin a longshot for one of the limited at-large invites. The Polar Bears are starting to like this underdog label, however.

“What’s fun is that every game has been a huge game this year,” Kaubris said. “Nothing has been guaranteed.”