Fencing teams unable to get over Penn State hump, defeat NYU, UNC

Salieri and Mozart. Any European country in a land invasion against Russia. And now, finally, the Princeton fencing team against Penn State.

Throughout history, there have always been competitive struggles in which the underdog was just barely unable to come out on top against the opponent it badly wanted to beat. It seemed as though it would always fall short of its goal and was just never quite lucky enough to come out on top. In their competitions at New York University this weekend, the Princeton fencing teams recognized that of the three schools they would face, the only one they really needed to worry about was six-time defending national champion Penn State.

Nobody on the Princeton fencing team has ever beaten Penn State in a team competition. This meet, however, was Princeton's best chance to date of doing so. Because of a strong mixture of new faces and old standbys, the Tigers looked to this meet with optimism and high expectations.

Like clockwork, the two Princeton teams were able to put down any charges by either NYU or North Carolina, with the men's team coming away with victories of 16-11 over NYU and 19-8 over UNC. The women were equally impressive in these two competitions as they won by 18-9 over the host Violets and 23-4 over the Tar Heels.

What did not proceed according to hopes, however, was the competition against Penn State. Though Princeton felt as though this was its chance to come out on top, it was not to be, as both the women and the men were repelled by the solid Penn State fencers.

Extenuating circumstances

Other factors may have also had a hand in the Princeton struggles. For one, the team's unity — one of its major strengths — was disrupted as the competition was carried out on three different strips instead of one due to time constraints.

"They didn't conduct the meet as it is normally done," senior captain and foil Lisa Leslie said. "With the teams separated around the gymnasium, the teams were not able to unite behind each individual fencer but instead had to break up and spread their encouragement among each of the many fencers fighting at the same time."

Despite this difficulty, the women started out the competition well, winning six out of nine matches in the first round.

"We started out pretty well as it appeared that Penn State was pretty nervous," sophomore foil Mindy Rostal said.

In the first round of the sabre event, each of the three women won her respective match. The Tigers won two out of the three epee bouts, and in the foil competition, Rostal was able to come away with one win.

From then on, however, the competition quickly worsened as Princeton won a mere four out of the next 18 matches.

The second round saw the only two Princeton matches being won by senior K.J. Hurme and junior Lindsay Campbell, both in the epee. In the final round, only Leslie and Rostal were able to pull away with victories.

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With the lapse in the final two rounds, the Princeton women's fencing team ended the competition against Penn State with a 17-10 loss.

Tight battle

The men's competition against Penn State ended up being slightly closer as Princeton began the competition poorly but finished up in strong form. In the first round, the Tigers won only two of the nine competitions, with those wins coming from sophomore sabre Jim Wallen and freshman foil Jon Jew-Lim.

The Tigers did better during the second and third rounds as they were able to come away with five wins in each.

With the final surge in the last two rounds, the Tigers' men's team was able to close out the competition down 15-12.

"It was frustrating that we didn't beat Penn State. It came down to a couple of close bouts. A few bad calls could have sent it either way," senior sabre Terry Kim said.

Though they were not able to finally pull off the upset over Penn State, the Tigers leave the competition with the realization that a victory is almost within their grasp.