This past weekend, both the men’s and women’s fencing teams traveled to Evanston, Ill. for the annual Northwestern Duals, a marathon of a competition. In the span of just two days, each of the enduring Orange and Black teams competed against 11 different schools.
Each year the Northwestern Duals attract both ranked and unranked teams from across the country. This year, the tournament marks the third competition of the season, following the Penn Elite Invitational in November and the Sacred Heart Duals in December.
As the no. 3 and no. 8 women’s and men’s teams, respectively, in the country, Princeton fencing encountered mixed competition, battling ranked teams such as no. 2 Notre Dame but dominating unranked teams such as the team from the California Institute of Technology.
At the end of the event on Sunday, both the men’s and women’s teams emerged victorious. The men’s team finished with an impressive 9-2 record, losing only to no. 7 Ohio State and No. 2 Notre Dame. Similarly, the women’s team accumulated an 8-3 record, falling to no. 6 Ohio State, no. 2 Notre Dame, and no. 5 Northwestern.
Leading the Tigers were the usual suspects. On the women’s side, junior épéeist Audrey Abend spearheaded the Orange and Black effort, winning 29 of her 33 matchups. Conversely, for the men’s team, brothers Thomas and Michael Dudey, a sophomore and junior, respectively, and freshman Alex Lam each won 25 matches.
Junior épéeist Audrey Abend, the women’s team point leader over the weekend, provided a firsthand account of the action-packed weekend. When asked about the Northwestern Duals, the New York City native commented, “The thing that comes to mind is it’s a very long tournament. It’s like a marathon, a Spartan battle. It’s about letting your endurance and training prevail; you almost go into automatic mode. Your training really does show, though. It’s really interesting because those practices late at night matter. It’s really fun but it takes a toll.”
To be precise, each fencing tournament follows a precise structure. Within each game between two schools, there are a total of 27 individual matchups. The épéeists, foilists and sabrists each compete against nine individual opponents. The team that reaches 14 individual victories first wins.
Amid the endless individual matchups, the women’s team especially celebrated their victory over rival no. 10 Temple University. Abend explained, “We fenced Temple University which only has a women’s team but is really strong. My team did really well; we won 9-0. The fact that we were able to hold together was really rewarding.”
Perhaps the most crucial element of the weekend victories was the combined positivity of both the women’s and men’s teams, which actually practice and integrate closely. In particular, Abend added, "We always stayed positive. Even when two people lose we always say good job. We try to just focus on tactically what we can do the next time. It really helps. One thing we did is in between each bout the previous teammate will help hook up the next teammate.”
The teams hope to use the positivity and momentum generated this weekend to carry over into next week’s Ivy League round robin at Cornell.
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